"And in the morning, when you're turning, I'll be far to sea"
Today was a lovely day. ^__^ Kirk, Anderson, Amanda and I threw together a picnic (there was an extra sandwich, so Kirk gave it to a homeless girl -- yay for putting extra food to good use!) and then we headed off to Jeune Leune for Salomé. That wasn't so good, more on that later. When that was (finally) through, we headed over to the Wilde Roast for dessert, then got lost on the way to the next show because it wasn't an usual venue. Looked more like an office building kind of thing, v. confusing, but whatever. That was From Here to Maternity, a Joseph Scrimshaw show and so, so funny -- the Scrimshaws are my local actor-writer heroes. I still want to see Macbeth's Awesome Scottish Castle Party. Anyway, then we headed off home and now papa and the boys and Bree are arguing over a poker game. Tyler seems to be more himself today; I am trying not to be overly pleased about this lest it prove temporary. -- Awww, Bree is lending me books. Have I mentioned my brother's girlfriend is adorable? It's still weird that she's my manager, but I'm not arguing.
Okay, so.
Jeune Leune is a very pretty theater and theirs was a pretty set. Very simple, just a stone wall with doors back to Jokanaan's prison and then some chairs and cushions for sitting, but pretty and effective.
The show opened with some woman dancing, and I'm still not clear on whether she was supposed to be a slave or one of Herod's guests, as they kept doubling the two up at random. Anyway, I guess they wanted a chance to show her off as a dancer, but it seemed like a weird choice since she wasn't anyone particularly important to the plot and had no symbolic value, so it's not as if it set the scene for anything in the show. Pretty dancing, no point.
Costuming: No particular setting or time period, apparently. The soldiers were in camo pants, but they were baggy and pantaloon-like. Also, modern-looking caps. The guests were all exotic belly-dancerish women. Salomé had a white leotard with a little white gauzy dress over it. Herodias was wearing what looked like a partly-open kimono with a tiny dress underneath and a black waist-cincher type thing over. And spiky hair. Uhhh, okay.
The guests were okay. The soldiers were bland as hell. Naaman was totally cut, but he's not particularly important anyway.
Jokanaan being the first man Salomé has ever been attracted to, shouldn't he be . . . well, kind of hot? He was older than I thought he should have been, and fleshy and hairy. If anything, he should be on the too-thin side, since he's been wandering the desert and then imprisoned and all. It's also somewhat ridiculous for Salomé to talk about his white skin and black hair when he's not particularly pale and has light brown hair. He needed to be vaguely scary-looking and yet strangely attractive. He didn't have talent to make up for looking entirely wrong for the part, either. He just shouted a lot.
Narraboth, the Young Syrian, was randomly played by a woman. I'm not clear on why that was. Were they trying to straighten the show out and remove the homoerotic quality of his relationship with the Page? Didn't work very well, since it made his (her?) infatuation with Salomé lesbian, after all. Could have just been gender-blind casting, only there's really no point changing all the pronouns then. It's possible they wanted to cast her for dance skill. More on that later. When she stabbed herself, a huge gauzy red scarf was used for the blood.
The Page was boring. He's not a huge character or anything, I know, but it'd be nice to sympathize with him a little.
Herodias was better than most of the rest of the cast, but still bland. Herod, too. He was appropriately icky, but didn't react nearly strongly enough. When you're made to order someone you believe is a holy man killed and then decide to execute the person who made you promise, shouldn't it be kind of climactic? Shouldn't you be upset? Especially if you're sure, just sure it means something terrible is coming? I'm not asking for yelling (in fact, I don't think yelling would have worked very well) but it would have been good to see some real concern for the seriousness of the situation, you know?
Salomé. Salomé, Salomé, Salomé. Well, she had pretty hair! Blonde and very long, which created cool effects at times. I'm guessing she was cast for dancing ability rather than acting, though, and she wasn't even a really exceptional dancer. No life in her face. I would also expect a dancer to be decent at the physical aspect of acting, but her movements were really stiff and forced and didn't seem to have any real characterization choices behind them. She was . . . whiny. Childish at times and seductive at others, which is good but only if you know when to do which, and she didn't. She put her foot up on Herod's chair at "I will dance for you" and then did a little stripper kick, though, which I did like. XD Too much simpering. She wasn't nearly deliberate enough, either. I don't think Salomé demanding the head of Jokanaan comes from a fit of childish rage. I've always pictured her as a scarily smart little thing. She thinks about it. She makes the decision. If she can't kiss his mouth with his head still on his shoulders, well, it's going to have to come off, isn't it, and serves him right. This Salomé just kind of lost it. I would like to see her icily calm when she reminds Herod of his oath. This one seemed like a child throwing a tantrum. Salomé is young, but damn it, she's not childish. See canon for proof. "It is strange that the husband of my mother looks at me like that. I know not what it means. Of a truth I know it too well." She knows damn well the effect she has on men. She uses it. She's virginal, yes, and petulant, and selfish, and immature. But she's strategical enough to see an opportunity when Herod promises her anything she wants. She knows what to do to make Narraboth do what she wants. She's clever. If she ever throws a tantrum, it's going to be a calculated one. I see her as frighteningly focused and intense when she finally gets Jokanaan's head. She's got what she wants. Of course there's an emotional reaction to his still not looking at her, and anger in pointing out that he'd have lived if he hadn't scorned her, but she ought to still be very present. She seemed to have just snapped in this production, and the actress didn't even make her apparent madness very convincing. I wasn't sold on anything she did. Not a very good actress and not particularly into the character, or clear on who the character was.
But. The Dance of the Seven Veils was cool. A little too balletic at points (that was just odd) but the veils were used really creatively, and the guests/slaves participated -- still a showcase of Salomé and her talents, just them using the veils to highlight her actions and her body. The dead Syrian came out dressed all in white, with a white veil over her head. Salomé picked up the red veil that was being used as "blood" and they danced together, which was very neat and well done, the Syrian reaching out to Salomé and her teasing then dancing away. Then Jokanaan came out, also in white, and she danced with him, rather less effectively. Their dance didn't express a character dynamic as well. Physically he would push her away when she got too close, but at one point she lept at him and he held on and I think spun her before setting her down, and instead of using that as some display of force he was just dancing and it looked like nothing. What a bland actor. That was the show's problem overall, I think -- it was full of good ideas and bad actors.
So that was disappointing. I'd go over it in more detail, but you really don't want to know how much I can nitpick this to death. XD
Off work again tomorrow. Yaaay. As I am one book behind the rest of the world, I'm finally reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and I'm almost done. I've got to say, it doesn't seem nearly as bad fanfic-like as people made it out to be. I like Harry/Ginny, damn it. Of course it's silly and melodramatic. They're teenagers. We teenaged things act like that all the time. JKR's not a perfect writer (I don't even think she's an exceptional one, personally -- she's invented a neat little world, lots of great ideas, but the execution often lacks something) but there's nothing outrageously bad about HBP so far. Well, okay, except Tonks. Tonks needs her personality back, stat. Harry Potter's still fairly decent, though, okay, people? A lot of popular fiction is much worse. (Dan Brown, anyone?)
Tyler has found a new job! No more landscaping. He's going to be working as a caretaker for autistic people aged 10+. Apparently he gets the difficult ones because he's big enough to restrain them. Hee. He's really happy, though -- this is the kind of thing he's been wanting to do for a while. Yay for big brothers being happy. It's much too rare these days. ♥
Okay, so.
Jeune Leune is a very pretty theater and theirs was a pretty set. Very simple, just a stone wall with doors back to Jokanaan's prison and then some chairs and cushions for sitting, but pretty and effective.
The show opened with some woman dancing, and I'm still not clear on whether she was supposed to be a slave or one of Herod's guests, as they kept doubling the two up at random. Anyway, I guess they wanted a chance to show her off as a dancer, but it seemed like a weird choice since she wasn't anyone particularly important to the plot and had no symbolic value, so it's not as if it set the scene for anything in the show. Pretty dancing, no point.
Costuming: No particular setting or time period, apparently. The soldiers were in camo pants, but they were baggy and pantaloon-like. Also, modern-looking caps. The guests were all exotic belly-dancerish women. Salomé had a white leotard with a little white gauzy dress over it. Herodias was wearing what looked like a partly-open kimono with a tiny dress underneath and a black waist-cincher type thing over. And spiky hair. Uhhh, okay.
The guests were okay. The soldiers were bland as hell. Naaman was totally cut, but he's not particularly important anyway.
Jokanaan being the first man Salomé has ever been attracted to, shouldn't he be . . . well, kind of hot? He was older than I thought he should have been, and fleshy and hairy. If anything, he should be on the too-thin side, since he's been wandering the desert and then imprisoned and all. It's also somewhat ridiculous for Salomé to talk about his white skin and black hair when he's not particularly pale and has light brown hair. He needed to be vaguely scary-looking and yet strangely attractive. He didn't have talent to make up for looking entirely wrong for the part, either. He just shouted a lot.
Narraboth, the Young Syrian, was randomly played by a woman. I'm not clear on why that was. Were they trying to straighten the show out and remove the homoerotic quality of his relationship with the Page? Didn't work very well, since it made his (her?) infatuation with Salomé lesbian, after all. Could have just been gender-blind casting, only there's really no point changing all the pronouns then. It's possible they wanted to cast her for dance skill. More on that later. When she stabbed herself, a huge gauzy red scarf was used for the blood.
The Page was boring. He's not a huge character or anything, I know, but it'd be nice to sympathize with him a little.
Herodias was better than most of the rest of the cast, but still bland. Herod, too. He was appropriately icky, but didn't react nearly strongly enough. When you're made to order someone you believe is a holy man killed and then decide to execute the person who made you promise, shouldn't it be kind of climactic? Shouldn't you be upset? Especially if you're sure, just sure it means something terrible is coming? I'm not asking for yelling (in fact, I don't think yelling would have worked very well) but it would have been good to see some real concern for the seriousness of the situation, you know?
Salomé. Salomé, Salomé, Salomé. Well, she had pretty hair! Blonde and very long, which created cool effects at times. I'm guessing she was cast for dancing ability rather than acting, though, and she wasn't even a really exceptional dancer. No life in her face. I would also expect a dancer to be decent at the physical aspect of acting, but her movements were really stiff and forced and didn't seem to have any real characterization choices behind them. She was . . . whiny. Childish at times and seductive at others, which is good but only if you know when to do which, and she didn't. She put her foot up on Herod's chair at "I will dance for you" and then did a little stripper kick, though, which I did like. XD Too much simpering. She wasn't nearly deliberate enough, either. I don't think Salomé demanding the head of Jokanaan comes from a fit of childish rage. I've always pictured her as a scarily smart little thing. She thinks about it. She makes the decision. If she can't kiss his mouth with his head still on his shoulders, well, it's going to have to come off, isn't it, and serves him right. This Salomé just kind of lost it. I would like to see her icily calm when she reminds Herod of his oath. This one seemed like a child throwing a tantrum. Salomé is young, but damn it, she's not childish. See canon for proof. "It is strange that the husband of my mother looks at me like that. I know not what it means. Of a truth I know it too well." She knows damn well the effect she has on men. She uses it. She's virginal, yes, and petulant, and selfish, and immature. But she's strategical enough to see an opportunity when Herod promises her anything she wants. She knows what to do to make Narraboth do what she wants. She's clever. If she ever throws a tantrum, it's going to be a calculated one. I see her as frighteningly focused and intense when she finally gets Jokanaan's head. She's got what she wants. Of course there's an emotional reaction to his still not looking at her, and anger in pointing out that he'd have lived if he hadn't scorned her, but she ought to still be very present. She seemed to have just snapped in this production, and the actress didn't even make her apparent madness very convincing. I wasn't sold on anything she did. Not a very good actress and not particularly into the character, or clear on who the character was.
But. The Dance of the Seven Veils was cool. A little too balletic at points (that was just odd) but the veils were used really creatively, and the guests/slaves participated -- still a showcase of Salomé and her talents, just them using the veils to highlight her actions and her body. The dead Syrian came out dressed all in white, with a white veil over her head. Salomé picked up the red veil that was being used as "blood" and they danced together, which was very neat and well done, the Syrian reaching out to Salomé and her teasing then dancing away. Then Jokanaan came out, also in white, and she danced with him, rather less effectively. Their dance didn't express a character dynamic as well. Physically he would push her away when she got too close, but at one point she lept at him and he held on and I think spun her before setting her down, and instead of using that as some display of force he was just dancing and it looked like nothing. What a bland actor. That was the show's problem overall, I think -- it was full of good ideas and bad actors.
So that was disappointing. I'd go over it in more detail, but you really don't want to know how much I can nitpick this to death. XD
Off work again tomorrow. Yaaay. As I am one book behind the rest of the world, I'm finally reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and I'm almost done. I've got to say, it doesn't seem nearly as bad fanfic-like as people made it out to be. I like Harry/Ginny, damn it. Of course it's silly and melodramatic. They're teenagers. We teenaged things act like that all the time. JKR's not a perfect writer (I don't even think she's an exceptional one, personally -- she's invented a neat little world, lots of great ideas, but the execution often lacks something) but there's nothing outrageously bad about HBP so far. Well, okay, except Tonks. Tonks needs her personality back, stat. Harry Potter's still fairly decent, though, okay, people? A lot of popular fiction is much worse. (Dan Brown, anyone?)
Tyler has found a new job! No more landscaping. He's going to be working as a caretaker for autistic people aged 10+. Apparently he gets the difficult ones because he's big enough to restrain them. Hee. He's really happy, though -- this is the kind of thing he's been wanting to do for a while. Yay for big brothers being happy. It's much too rare these days. ♥