Post by NeilVHughes on Jul 1, 2018 9:09:12 GMT
Quietly reflecting on the what I’ve seen this year so far, one play if it can be called that is always at the forefront of my thoughts.
How It Is (Part 1) at the Print Room at the Coronet
An adaption of Part 1 of Beckett’s How It Is, before Pim.
As you walked in you were directed to the stage where we were to be seated, all the action if it can be called that took place in the auditorium. Three actors, hypnotic language often echoed by all three, minimal lighting and no staging made for an absorbing and completely incomprehensible evening.
The incomprehensibility made my brain work overtime as I tried to pick a way through it all and left on a high with a drive to make sense or better understand what I'd just experienced.
Have now read the book, if it can be called that as the only real thing I discovered is that I can’t read, the rules of writing which I believed were fundamental are not present in the book, short paragraphs no punctuation, every time you re-read a paragraph the meaning shifts and transforms, all narrative removed, can spend half an hour re-reading and darting around a single page of text. As in everything your sub-concious imposes your ‘values’ on what is being read/seen/experienced in the background which is impossible with this book.
For me Beckett reflects the idiocy/absurdity of the rules we impose on our lives, life is completely random, the odds of even being born is astronomical and the constraints in the end become our gaoler. (The beauty of Beckett is that the opposite is also equally true, primarily driven by whether in my opinion you are an optimist in my case or a pessimist) In Godot have always seen the Pozzo / Lucky relationship as being a reflection of the lives most of us live, as in this Sartre quote pushed to its limit in the life of the man in the mud.
"you and many others swathe your bodies in cloth and congregate in a large box where you make agitated sounds at one another; you press many plastic buttons with great rapidity in exchange for pieces of paper. Then you stop and go away. The next time the sky gets light, you come back"
A bit rambling for a warm Summer Sunday morning waiting for the shops to open to get my tins, suppose the point is that Theatre can still surprise and excite and the tens of average/poor plays is the price worth paying for one evening such as this.
Other highlights in no particular order:
- Nine Night at the Dorfman
- The Inheritance at the Young Vic
- Sea Wall at the Old Vic
- Summer and Smoke at the Dorfman
- Happy Days at the Royal Exchange
Here’s to the next six months and the experiences to come.
How It Is (Part 1) at the Print Room at the Coronet
An adaption of Part 1 of Beckett’s How It Is, before Pim.
As you walked in you were directed to the stage where we were to be seated, all the action if it can be called that took place in the auditorium. Three actors, hypnotic language often echoed by all three, minimal lighting and no staging made for an absorbing and completely incomprehensible evening.
The incomprehensibility made my brain work overtime as I tried to pick a way through it all and left on a high with a drive to make sense or better understand what I'd just experienced.
Have now read the book, if it can be called that as the only real thing I discovered is that I can’t read, the rules of writing which I believed were fundamental are not present in the book, short paragraphs no punctuation, every time you re-read a paragraph the meaning shifts and transforms, all narrative removed, can spend half an hour re-reading and darting around a single page of text. As in everything your sub-concious imposes your ‘values’ on what is being read/seen/experienced in the background which is impossible with this book.
For me Beckett reflects the idiocy/absurdity of the rules we impose on our lives, life is completely random, the odds of even being born is astronomical and the constraints in the end become our gaoler. (The beauty of Beckett is that the opposite is also equally true, primarily driven by whether in my opinion you are an optimist in my case or a pessimist) In Godot have always seen the Pozzo / Lucky relationship as being a reflection of the lives most of us live, as in this Sartre quote pushed to its limit in the life of the man in the mud.
"you and many others swathe your bodies in cloth and congregate in a large box where you make agitated sounds at one another; you press many plastic buttons with great rapidity in exchange for pieces of paper. Then you stop and go away. The next time the sky gets light, you come back"
A bit rambling for a warm Summer Sunday morning waiting for the shops to open to get my tins, suppose the point is that Theatre can still surprise and excite and the tens of average/poor plays is the price worth paying for one evening such as this.
Other highlights in no particular order:
- Nine Night at the Dorfman
- The Inheritance at the Young Vic
- Sea Wall at the Old Vic
- Summer and Smoke at the Dorfman
- Happy Days at the Royal Exchange
Here’s to the next six months and the experiences to come.
