Retreat + The Broken Heart

[deliasherman]

I'm back from Mexico, where I drafted the new last half of my WIP (all except the last scene, owing to the plane landing before I quite finished writing it, and exhaustion and Real Life taking up all my time since) and talked Writing, Business, and Cowboy Boots pretty much around the clock.  San Miguel de Allende is very beautiful, the Spanish

Comments

[vschanoes]

Hmm. I found The Broken Heart fun, but far too long. There was an awful lot of pausing and slow speaking, which dragged things out to 3.5 hours at the performance I saw. There were also some bizarre plot holes that are really uncharacteristic of the drama of the time: Orgilus disguises himself as a monk/student, and while in such disguise, is solicited by his sister and her love to carry messages back and forth. He's disgusted by this match because her lover's best friend is the brother who married off Penthea, so here is a prime opportunity to play hell with the young lovers...but nothing happens.

Orgilus has the power to refuse permission to his sister's choice of husband, and makes much of this throughout the first act. He hates her lover, the aforementioned best friend of the brother. He is summoned back to court specifically so she can ask him permission and he...grants it. Pretty much just like that.

Just after the wedding ceremony, Orgilus reveals that he has killed Penthea's brother. Here was a moment for the sister's lover to repudiate her, for how can he love and marry the woman whose brother slew his best friend? But...no. They just stay...happily married.

It just seemed odd. There were all these loose ends of a kind uncharacteristic for a play of that time, far fewer people die than I had expected, and at least two of them live happily and lovingly ever after, as far as we know. Odd.

[deliasherman]

Yeah. I know. But by the time they got to the plot holes, I'd already completely given up on anything making actual sense--rhetorical, dramatic, psychological, or rational.

For some reason,the pauses and declaiming didn't bother me. I guess I was too busy enjoying watching everyone chowing down on the scenery. The mad scene on Miss Havisham's table just made me smile.

Wish we'd seen it with you. The after-play discussion would have been prime.

[vschanoes]

I was lucky enough to see it with Erika, who came into town for the occasion, so I got the benefit of her professional insights!

I think my ability to withstand the length was severely hampered by the fact that by midway through the first half, I was already becoming rather hungry...

[deliasherman]

Well, that explains a lot. I kind of wish I'd seen it with Erika, too. It's been far too long since I read it (or the contemporary plays). So it was like a fresh, new experience of confusion for me.