(no subject)
So, went to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Friday night.
Met azureopal, who was kind enough to hook me up with a spare ticket - second row, great seats! Saw mai_ling134 and catkcrl at intermission when they were standing in front of me, three feet away. They convinced me that the misogyny I perceived in the play, that made it very difficult for me to view the play objectively, was basically due to the period in which the script was written (1963). It's basically buddy piece, in which the normal expressions of men are repressed by the institution over-lord thing - and the institution/repression is specifically female. In the second act, I was able to keep in mind that it was more "anti-average-guy" than making any statements about women specifically, outside of the allegorical thing.
I also had an issue with the Indian figure - he was the center piece, representing the romantic Indian/institutionally repressed/homeless, etc. I have issues with the romanticization of Native Americans in that way for purely academic reasons, so again, allegory. But I didn't feel the staging showing his inner impressions - in which the lighting abruptly dimmed to show him isolated from the group - hanged together with the rest of the story line. Yes, there's a slow integration of his personality into reality through the bridge of McMurphy (Jonathan Epstein). I dunno, the story lines just didn't quite hang together for me. It wasn't the directing/acting - for me, it was the play itself. The characters were too cliche'd. But they were written that way.
Okay, having said that. The acting was brilliant. I LOVED Linda Hamilton - I think she conveyed the controlled creepiness of Ratched perfectly - and her flinch at the very end, away from patients whom she had previously reacted to as beloved pets, was brilliant.
Jonathan Epstein was great - I read somewhere that people were disappointed he seemed to have "let himself go." Um. The character's a shlub. He's not supposed to be a romantic hero. He's a hard-drinking, careless, sex-crazed couch potato. He's Every Man. Right? Yep, they've got guts. Although the over-the-top Irish thing... again, okay, cliche, but again, that's the writing.
And Randy Harrison. Good Lord, has he EVER taken a bad step on stage? I actually had to force myself to look away from him - red-rimmed eyes, pale as death face, cigarette burned eyes and everything. He just draws the eye; it's like he shimmers on stage. It's such a pleasure to watch him work.
Finally, Linda Hamilton had THE BEST SHOES EVER. I was on an eye level with them. I NEED THOSE SHOES. In black, though.
Met azureopal, who was kind enough to hook me up with a spare ticket - second row, great seats! Saw mai_ling134 and catkcrl at intermission when they were standing in front of me, three feet away. They convinced me that the misogyny I perceived in the play, that made it very difficult for me to view the play objectively, was basically due to the period in which the script was written (1963). It's basically buddy piece, in which the normal expressions of men are repressed by the institution over-lord thing - and the institution/repression is specifically female. In the second act, I was able to keep in mind that it was more "anti-average-guy" than making any statements about women specifically, outside of the allegorical thing.
I also had an issue with the Indian figure - he was the center piece, representing the romantic Indian/institutionally repressed/homeless, etc. I have issues with the romanticization of Native Americans in that way for purely academic reasons, so again, allegory. But I didn't feel the staging showing his inner impressions - in which the lighting abruptly dimmed to show him isolated from the group - hanged together with the rest of the story line. Yes, there's a slow integration of his personality into reality through the bridge of McMurphy (Jonathan Epstein). I dunno, the story lines just didn't quite hang together for me. It wasn't the directing/acting - for me, it was the play itself. The characters were too cliche'd. But they were written that way.
Okay, having said that. The acting was brilliant. I LOVED Linda Hamilton - I think she conveyed the controlled creepiness of Ratched perfectly - and her flinch at the very end, away from patients whom she had previously reacted to as beloved pets, was brilliant.
Jonathan Epstein was great - I read somewhere that people were disappointed he seemed to have "let himself go." Um. The character's a shlub. He's not supposed to be a romantic hero. He's a hard-drinking, careless, sex-crazed couch potato. He's Every Man. Right? Yep, they've got guts. Although the over-the-top Irish thing... again, okay, cliche, but again, that's the writing.
And Randy Harrison. Good Lord, has he EVER taken a bad step on stage? I actually had to force myself to look away from him - red-rimmed eyes, pale as death face, cigarette burned eyes and everything. He just draws the eye; it's like he shimmers on stage. It's such a pleasure to watch him work.
Finally, Linda Hamilton had THE BEST SHOES EVER. I was on an eye level with them. I NEED THOSE SHOES. In black, though.