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Nov. 28th, 2010 05:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cblj_backupSo then I saw The Importance Of Being Earnest at Remy Bumppo!
Most people who have done theatre are familiar with the Speed Through, a quick rehearsal where you get on, say your lines as fast as possible, do your blocking, and get off again. It's just to make sure there are no rough spots and to keep the actors in touch with their lines. It also lets the director see the show in "fast forward" to see where any awkward blocking is.
When I was in undergrad, I worked four to six plays a year, but I was actually in precisely one play in four years: Major Barbara. Major Barbara is by George Bernard Shaw, who is very difficult to do well unless you know what you're doing. I love Shaw's plays to pieces, he's my favourite playwright, but I will admit that he's like Oscar Wilde mixed with your most boring Politics professor ever. Fortunately we had an exceptional director who did know what he was doing, and when we were all fairly proficient in the staging and our lines he instituted a once-weekly rehearsal known as the Italian Through.
On our first Italian Through, he asked us to name all the things we think of when we think of Italy (sorry, Italians). We made a list and wrote it up on a wall backstage. Some of the ones I remember are People Talking Loudly, Passion, Wet Kisses, Heartburn, Shakespeare, Tomatoes, Rome, Garibaldi, and The Mafia. (Seriously, Italians, I'm sorry.)
"Okay," he said, "Now do an Italian Through."
We came to look forward to the weekly Italian Throughs, because they were hilarious and fun. It was like a Speed Through on uppers; we shouted, gesticulated, talked really fast, snogged when we should be Polite English Kissing, over-reacted to all heartbreak, and generally had a great time. At one point I was knocked over by a passionate Barbara and screamed like a football player faking an injury. Once, Charles and Undershaft improvised their blocking and instead of just talking, they had their little discussion while circling each other holding small arms that were a part of the stage dressing. It's very hard to Italian Through in English dialect, but it did help some of the actors figure out where their accents were slipping.
All of which is to say that Remy Bumppo could really use an Italian Through.
It was a perfectly well-performed production of Earnest, but it went so slowly. Wilde's dialogue is snappy and you can't just drop your line and let it hit the deck; you have to throw it at the audience and at your stage partner. You have to do Wilde like it's a game of lacrosse. There was precisely one scene (the fight over the muffins) where I felt really engaged. Perhaps it's because I've seen about eight different productions of Earnest, including the film, but I love this play and could happily watch it over and over if it is done well. (I own a copy of both the old black and white film, with the best Bracknell ever, and the one done a few years ago with Rupert Everett and Colin Firth.)
The sad thing is I also love Remy Bumppo, and I don't like saying they've done a less-than-amazing production. Their work is consistently good, not just the acting but the technical design (this was no exception -- the set in particular was jaw-droppingly clever). I'm a subscriber and proud supporter so I never like to see them be less than their best, but it just wasn't anything special.
The casting was not great -- Gwendolyn (who I've seen give great performances in other shows) couldn't hold her accent, Algernon was physically great but didn't give great line delivery, and casting a man as Lady Bracknell is a funny sight gag once, but then you have to deal with him for the rest of the show. Perhaps if he were drag-queening it up a bit it might work, but Lady Bracknell can't be played by a dry, subdued man. At least, not in that hat. Substituting masculinity for bombast doesn't really work.
I do cut them some slack because this was the last preview before opening night, when traditionally actors are a) tired and b) saving up for the next performance. Plus, you know, it's a preview, so nobody's on the absolute top of their game yet. But the problems I saw were mostly with speed and delivery and that's not necessarily something that's going to pick up unless the director kicks them in the ass. And at this point I'm sure the director is more or less out of asskick, because, again: tomorrow is opening night.
When I saw this season's schedule, which is themed on a celebration of "The Greatest Writers Of Our Language", I was a bit disappointed that they couldn't include at least one female playwright among the three productions. I personally am not that fond of Albee's work, so I thought they could have dropped him; I also know that Earnest is immensely popular and puts butts in the seats. But I still wish now, having seen it, that they'd dropped Earnest. I found I couldn't name many famous English-language female playwrights off the top of my head, but it took me approximately thirty seconds to find a list of them via google. And Bell In Campo, by Margaret Cavendish, is a rarely-done play that could produce some pretty interesting results on stage. Plus, hello Agatha Christie and Lillian Hellman.
Now, all this being said, I'm a theatre nerd and I've seen Earnest a lot, so my view is skewed. If you haven't seen a production of Earnest, it's a decent one; if you love the play you might stop in to see it just to see what they were doing with it, because they do have some unusual takes on some of the iconic moments in the play. And if you do see Earnest as your first Remy Bumppo show, don't judge the company by it -- they've done much better in the past and I'm confident they will do much better in the future.
OKAY MY THEATRE NERDERY IS DONE, BACK TO PORN AND GIN RUMMY.
Most people who have done theatre are familiar with the Speed Through, a quick rehearsal where you get on, say your lines as fast as possible, do your blocking, and get off again. It's just to make sure there are no rough spots and to keep the actors in touch with their lines. It also lets the director see the show in "fast forward" to see where any awkward blocking is.
When I was in undergrad, I worked four to six plays a year, but I was actually in precisely one play in four years: Major Barbara. Major Barbara is by George Bernard Shaw, who is very difficult to do well unless you know what you're doing. I love Shaw's plays to pieces, he's my favourite playwright, but I will admit that he's like Oscar Wilde mixed with your most boring Politics professor ever. Fortunately we had an exceptional director who did know what he was doing, and when we were all fairly proficient in the staging and our lines he instituted a once-weekly rehearsal known as the Italian Through.
On our first Italian Through, he asked us to name all the things we think of when we think of Italy (sorry, Italians). We made a list and wrote it up on a wall backstage. Some of the ones I remember are People Talking Loudly, Passion, Wet Kisses, Heartburn, Shakespeare, Tomatoes, Rome, Garibaldi, and The Mafia. (Seriously, Italians, I'm sorry.)
"Okay," he said, "Now do an Italian Through."
We came to look forward to the weekly Italian Throughs, because they were hilarious and fun. It was like a Speed Through on uppers; we shouted, gesticulated, talked really fast, snogged when we should be Polite English Kissing, over-reacted to all heartbreak, and generally had a great time. At one point I was knocked over by a passionate Barbara and screamed like a football player faking an injury. Once, Charles and Undershaft improvised their blocking and instead of just talking, they had their little discussion while circling each other holding small arms that were a part of the stage dressing. It's very hard to Italian Through in English dialect, but it did help some of the actors figure out where their accents were slipping.
All of which is to say that Remy Bumppo could really use an Italian Through.
It was a perfectly well-performed production of Earnest, but it went so slowly. Wilde's dialogue is snappy and you can't just drop your line and let it hit the deck; you have to throw it at the audience and at your stage partner. You have to do Wilde like it's a game of lacrosse. There was precisely one scene (the fight over the muffins) where I felt really engaged. Perhaps it's because I've seen about eight different productions of Earnest, including the film, but I love this play and could happily watch it over and over if it is done well. (I own a copy of both the old black and white film, with the best Bracknell ever, and the one done a few years ago with Rupert Everett and Colin Firth.)
The sad thing is I also love Remy Bumppo, and I don't like saying they've done a less-than-amazing production. Their work is consistently good, not just the acting but the technical design (this was no exception -- the set in particular was jaw-droppingly clever). I'm a subscriber and proud supporter so I never like to see them be less than their best, but it just wasn't anything special.
The casting was not great -- Gwendolyn (who I've seen give great performances in other shows) couldn't hold her accent, Algernon was physically great but didn't give great line delivery, and casting a man as Lady Bracknell is a funny sight gag once, but then you have to deal with him for the rest of the show. Perhaps if he were drag-queening it up a bit it might work, but Lady Bracknell can't be played by a dry, subdued man. At least, not in that hat. Substituting masculinity for bombast doesn't really work.
I do cut them some slack because this was the last preview before opening night, when traditionally actors are a) tired and b) saving up for the next performance. Plus, you know, it's a preview, so nobody's on the absolute top of their game yet. But the problems I saw were mostly with speed and delivery and that's not necessarily something that's going to pick up unless the director kicks them in the ass. And at this point I'm sure the director is more or less out of asskick, because, again: tomorrow is opening night.
When I saw this season's schedule, which is themed on a celebration of "The Greatest Writers Of Our Language", I was a bit disappointed that they couldn't include at least one female playwright among the three productions. I personally am not that fond of Albee's work, so I thought they could have dropped him; I also know that Earnest is immensely popular and puts butts in the seats. But I still wish now, having seen it, that they'd dropped Earnest. I found I couldn't name many famous English-language female playwrights off the top of my head, but it took me approximately thirty seconds to find a list of them via google. And Bell In Campo, by Margaret Cavendish, is a rarely-done play that could produce some pretty interesting results on stage. Plus, hello Agatha Christie and Lillian Hellman.
Now, all this being said, I'm a theatre nerd and I've seen Earnest a lot, so my view is skewed. If you haven't seen a production of Earnest, it's a decent one; if you love the play you might stop in to see it just to see what they were doing with it, because they do have some unusual takes on some of the iconic moments in the play. And if you do see Earnest as your first Remy Bumppo show, don't judge the company by it -- they've done much better in the past and I'm confident they will do much better in the future.
OKAY MY THEATRE NERDERY IS DONE, BACK TO PORN AND GIN RUMMY.
