I'm not very happy this morning, kids. I know part of it is the sheer exhaustion from living with these allergies for the last 2-1/2 weeks but I'm just feeling very isolated. The demons are putting up a fight. I've had nothing social to do all weekend, and I get to end it with a day of dealing with theatre business, which is sucky as I kinda feel like people only want me when there's work to be done. I know that's not actually true, but it is how it feels sometimes. I just want someone to come looking for me cause they miss me. But then I'm just as bad. I don't exactly contact people all the time with nothing to say. No offers. Sorry I'm being self-indulgent in my Sunday morning pity party. I have the doldrums.
So what did I do this week. Well, the major entertainment of the week was going to SCR to see Midsummer. An interesting production, a little disconnected I felt as far as general theme, but I can see they used it to distinguish between the fairy world and the normal world. The normal world seemed to have a very late 50's/early 60's element to it, all smart dresses and suits. Helena was the stand out in the mortal world, the actress played her as adorable and gawky and her comic timing was wonderful. The other lovers were good, but nothing extraordinary. Lysander also did a wonderful kind of nerd and I liked him as well. The fairies were, I don't know, kind of raver/club kids and mostly males playing gay. I wasn't thrilled with them. Oberon & Titania were double cast as Theseus & Hippolyta as most productions seem to do and I liked Titania well enough, she played her very playfully, had a very Madonna like vibe to her and yes there were pop song & dance numbers which I found quite annoying. I don't want to come to see Midsummer and end up in the middle of a Broadway musical, but more on that later. Oberon was rather dreadful, I could see no differentiation in character from Theseus, he was very stiff. That makes me sad as I'm always partial to Oberon, probably as I've rarely seen him played well. Puck, on the other hand, was very interesting. He had this David Johansen, New York Dolls, Clockwork Orange thing going on. Very old school rock star with crazy Mick Jagger moves and a strange affectation of speech, an older Puck then I've ever seen played, I found him rather fascinating. During the lovers scenes in the forest, the fairies were always present in the background, and they undressed the lovers throughout the show so that they literally performed half the play in their underwear. I thought this a very interesting conceit, a physical manifestation of the emotional stripping down that occurs on the fairies turf, but it kind of bothered me that the lovers took no notice of it whatsoever. I get that the fairies are invisible and all, but when coming into physical contact with mortals you'd think there's be some recognition of it.
The Mechanicals were lovely, mostly played by the elder statesmen of SCR, but they didn't really shine until the final play within the play which was hilarious.. Bottom's ass head was very cool, fashioned as a skull with leather patches sown on the back and up to make the ears with fairy lights in the skull. Quite lovely.
But the final scene was a horrible disappointment. They took Puck's beautiful monologues at the end of the show, and turned them into a full blown Broadway hip hop dance number with Puck half rapping them over the music, while the entire cast including the Mechanicals came out for the number. You couldn't even hear what he was saying. I was a sad bunny.
All in all, it was an enjoyable evening though. :)
I have watched a number of movies in my confinement, including An Education which was very very good, I love Peter Sarsgaard. Adorable. Yesterday, I not only forced myself outside for a hike and picture taking, but I managed to stay in the rest of the day and not turn on the tv until 9pm! Read quite a bit and got some housework done, so a productive day really. Working my way throught Celtic Myths and Legends now, which I'm enjoying. I finished Bloodsucking Fiends on Tuesday before I did more theatre work. Sigh. Very good book, great ending. I do think that Fool is still my favorite of the Christopher Moore books although I liked Lamb a lot as well. He reminds me a lot of Tom Robbins.
Well, I guess that's it for this week. I'll conclude with some of the pictures I took yesterday down at the estuary, I'm pretty proud of them. :)
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