My intention was to see more theater. Actors, treading the boards. Sweat and spittle and human emotions. What I had foolishly imagined, when purchasing tickets for the Civilians' Gone Missing at a little downtown theater and Black Watch at St. Ann's Warehouse, was grit. Stark, raving grit. Maybe something akin to the time when Charlie took the nerds of Head of the Class to see a production of Hamlet, and it was modernized, and vital, and harrowing, and terrible. What I was expecting was something like that, minus the modernized, and the terrible. What I got, instead, were two very engaging and enjoyable performances, but, both, surprisingly musicals!
Eventually, I am going to praise both shows. First, I am going to state my shock and dismay that everything these days, apparently, has to be a musical - with both song and dance, even if the dance is Devo-inspired. I guess it's 2007. I guess, and I think ED laughed as she said it, I should read the reviews. I was trying not to spoil anything.
So, Gone Missing. This show had two non-performance related highlights. First, JWW and JZ, who came down from the slumberbs to join me at the show, well, what's the best way to describe their behavior? Like released prison inmates? Sailors on furlough? They hit the city around 5, I gathered, and by the time I met them for dinner at 7, the were tipsy. Two margaritas and dinner later, when we rolled into the theater, they were ready for naps. And they did not hesitate in taking them. Not even to be disturbed by the second highlight, the gaggle of ladies directly behind us, who put their bodies' alcohol content to the use of loudly commenting on how good a performer their sister was, throughout the show. Now, these two highlights were complemented nicely by the show, itself. Their sister, who I believe played the Puerto Rican junk yard owner, among people, was excellent. And the dream-like qualities of the non-linear narrative arcs allowed my friends to drift in and out of the show with little damage done.
About Gone Missing, in brief. The shows origin, as I understand, comes from a multitude of taped interviews that the troupe conducted with people - family, friends, acquaintances, strangers - asking the question "What have you lost?" The lost thing having to qualify as a thing, not a loved one or a memory. The show then compiled the best of those interviews, with the six players, three men and three women, occupying the roles of multiple characters, intertwining their fragmented narratives with songs, a re-enacted Terry Gross interview, and a few off-kilter dance numbers. Each wearing a nondescript gray suit, all against the backdrop of an empty stage. All in all, I enjoyed the show quite a bit. The character sketches and anecdotes were compelling, sometimes sad, sometimes touching, sometimes funny. The performers were all talented, and inhabited their charges with ease.
Black Watch was also an engaging performance, although quite a different production. ED and I were pleased to see Liam Neeson and a somewhat suspect Tom Wolfe-like character (must every bird-like, white-haired man in a white suit be Tom Wolfe?) in the audience with us. The play, performed by the National Theater of Scotland, recounted the experiences of the Black Watch, one of Scotland's army regiments with a long and illustrious history, through their tours of duty in Iraq, ultimately ending in the disassembling of the regiment.
Told largely from the perspective of the young soldiers comprising a unit in the regiment, both during and after their tours of duty in the war, the play takes its power largely from the pitch-perfect performances of the soldiers -- young, rough, but jaded by and guarded due to their wartime experience, reflective in uneven measures, emboldened and scarred both -- and a riveting climax sequence which relates a scene in which the patrol of the young soldiers, up until now largely spectators in the war, fall victim to a car-bomb attack on their patrol. As the opening lines of the play relate, most people already have their mind made up about this war. I don't know if this play will likely change anyone's mind, but it does a wonderful job of relating the story, theatrically, from the inside. The play is also extremely effective in placing the regiment's role in the war in the context of its proud history, and its changed relationship to the Scottish public, through the overlays of media exposure, political posturing, and a new type of fighting which has changed the nature of armed conflict itself.
A couple of interpretive dance numbers aside (both of which ED found compelling, one of which I found compelling, the other slightly ridiculous), the play was excellent. Liam Neeson did not, however, laugh at any of the lighter moments.
Eventually, I am going to praise both shows. First, I am going to state my shock and dismay that everything these days, apparently, has to be a musical - with both song and dance, even if the dance is Devo-inspired. I guess it's 2007. I guess, and I think ED laughed as she said it, I should read the reviews. I was trying not to spoil anything.
So, Gone Missing. This show had two non-performance related highlights. First, JWW and JZ, who came down from the slumberbs to join me at the show, well, what's the best way to describe their behavior? Like released prison inmates? Sailors on furlough? They hit the city around 5, I gathered, and by the time I met them for dinner at 7, the were tipsy. Two margaritas and dinner later, when we rolled into the theater, they were ready for naps. And they did not hesitate in taking them. Not even to be disturbed by the second highlight, the gaggle of ladies directly behind us, who put their bodies' alcohol content to the use of loudly commenting on how good a performer their sister was, throughout the show. Now, these two highlights were complemented nicely by the show, itself. Their sister, who I believe played the Puerto Rican junk yard owner, among people, was excellent. And the dream-like qualities of the non-linear narrative arcs allowed my friends to drift in and out of the show with little damage done.
About Gone Missing, in brief. The shows origin, as I understand, comes from a multitude of taped interviews that the troupe conducted with people - family, friends, acquaintances, strangers - asking the question "What have you lost?" The lost thing having to qualify as a thing, not a loved one or a memory. The show then compiled the best of those interviews, with the six players, three men and three women, occupying the roles of multiple characters, intertwining their fragmented narratives with songs, a re-enacted Terry Gross interview, and a few off-kilter dance numbers. Each wearing a nondescript gray suit, all against the backdrop of an empty stage. All in all, I enjoyed the show quite a bit. The character sketches and anecdotes were compelling, sometimes sad, sometimes touching, sometimes funny. The performers were all talented, and inhabited their charges with ease.
Black Watch was also an engaging performance, although quite a different production. ED and I were pleased to see Liam Neeson and a somewhat suspect Tom Wolfe-like character (must every bird-like, white-haired man in a white suit be Tom Wolfe?) in the audience with us. The play, performed by the National Theater of Scotland, recounted the experiences of the Black Watch, one of Scotland's army regiments with a long and illustrious history, through their tours of duty in Iraq, ultimately ending in the disassembling of the regiment.
Told largely from the perspective of the young soldiers comprising a unit in the regiment, both during and after their tours of duty in the war, the play takes its power largely from the pitch-perfect performances of the soldiers -- young, rough, but jaded by and guarded due to their wartime experience, reflective in uneven measures, emboldened and scarred both -- and a riveting climax sequence which relates a scene in which the patrol of the young soldiers, up until now largely spectators in the war, fall victim to a car-bomb attack on their patrol. As the opening lines of the play relate, most people already have their mind made up about this war. I don't know if this play will likely change anyone's mind, but it does a wonderful job of relating the story, theatrically, from the inside. The play is also extremely effective in placing the regiment's role in the war in the context of its proud history, and its changed relationship to the Scottish public, through the overlays of media exposure, political posturing, and a new type of fighting which has changed the nature of armed conflict itself.
A couple of interpretive dance numbers aside (both of which ED found compelling, one of which I found compelling, the other slightly ridiculous), the play was excellent. Liam Neeson did not, however, laugh at any of the lighter moments.
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