In which the A.R.T. hasn't changed much since I was in high school.
That is to say, it's still pretty much shit.
So my problem with the A.R.T., which I expressed to mcwonthelottery last night, is that I feel like you need a degree in theatre for their staging choices to make any sense whatsoever. And the rest of us cultureless slobs just sort of stare at the stage in horror/fascination/confusion, trying to figure out why they're projecting what's happening on stage onto the backdrop, but as a negative image.
No, seriously. Anyone want to explain that one to me? I'm listening. I love to learn!
Other odd and incomprehensible staging choices for "Paradise Lost" at the A.R.T. include: a microphone, seemingly held at random, intermittently, for no discernible purpose. The use of video -- sometimes charming, like the footage of the wedding party, but mostly stilted and awkward, as with the conversation with the factory workers. One of the most dramatic moments in the first act was also staged oddly, with three actors placed on the far side of the stage and below the raised platform where most of the play took place, while their interaction was projected onto the backdrop.
Look, A.R.T., if I wanted to watch a movie, I would watch a movie. What the fuck are you doing?
The acting was also inconsistent -- the guy playing Ben seemed to be working in a completely different style than anyone else on stage, and I didn't like a lot of the directing. The script was genuinely interesting, but a lot of the better lines felt rushed. During the aforementioned wedding party footage, Ben's sister castigates him and his new wife, Libby, for getting married when Ben has no money and no source of income, and Ben's response about how his sister is right but he loves Libby anyway is sweetly lyrical, but given no time to breathe.
The problem, I think, is that the A.R.T. is run by hipsters obsessed with the avant-garde, and therefore sentimentality can't be addressed unironically. But Ben isn't an ironic character, and he means (or thinks he means) his declaration of love. The crushing of Ben's spirit in the second act would have been far more dramatically effective if they hadn't run straight over the baring of Ben's romantic soul.
Spoilers, but act two (of three) concludes with what I can only assume was Ben committing suicide, which the A.R.T. communicated by dropping a dummy dressed in Ben's costume from the ceiling straight onto the platform below. It thudded awkwardly onto the stage, the house lights came up, and mcwonthelottery and I turned to each other and started laughing.
"You know," I said, as we walked out of the theatre, "I think that's the same dummy they had suspended over the stage when I saw the A.R.T.'s production of Oedipus Rex in high school."
So it's your call, flist. Does the A.R.T. have some sort of strange dummy fetish? You decide!
And yes, it was a drama, not a comedy. Although it's sometimes hard to tell, with their shows.
So my problem with the A.R.T., which I expressed to mcwonthelottery last night, is that I feel like you need a degree in theatre for their staging choices to make any sense whatsoever. And the rest of us cultureless slobs just sort of stare at the stage in horror/fascination/confusion, trying to figure out why they're projecting what's happening on stage onto the backdrop, but as a negative image.
No, seriously. Anyone want to explain that one to me? I'm listening. I love to learn!
Other odd and incomprehensible staging choices for "Paradise Lost" at the A.R.T. include: a microphone, seemingly held at random, intermittently, for no discernible purpose. The use of video -- sometimes charming, like the footage of the wedding party, but mostly stilted and awkward, as with the conversation with the factory workers. One of the most dramatic moments in the first act was also staged oddly, with three actors placed on the far side of the stage and below the raised platform where most of the play took place, while their interaction was projected onto the backdrop.
Look, A.R.T., if I wanted to watch a movie, I would watch a movie. What the fuck are you doing?
The acting was also inconsistent -- the guy playing Ben seemed to be working in a completely different style than anyone else on stage, and I didn't like a lot of the directing. The script was genuinely interesting, but a lot of the better lines felt rushed. During the aforementioned wedding party footage, Ben's sister castigates him and his new wife, Libby, for getting married when Ben has no money and no source of income, and Ben's response about how his sister is right but he loves Libby anyway is sweetly lyrical, but given no time to breathe.
The problem, I think, is that the A.R.T. is run by hipsters obsessed with the avant-garde, and therefore sentimentality can't be addressed unironically. But Ben isn't an ironic character, and he means (or thinks he means) his declaration of love. The crushing of Ben's spirit in the second act would have been far more dramatically effective if they hadn't run straight over the baring of Ben's romantic soul.
Spoilers, but act two (of three) concludes with what I can only assume was Ben committing suicide, which the A.R.T. communicated by dropping a dummy dressed in Ben's costume from the ceiling straight onto the platform below. It thudded awkwardly onto the stage, the house lights came up, and mcwonthelottery and I turned to each other and started laughing.
"You know," I said, as we walked out of the theatre, "I think that's the same dummy they had suspended over the stage when I saw the A.R.T.'s production of Oedipus Rex in high school."
So it's your call, flist. Does the A.R.T. have some sort of strange dummy fetish? You decide!
And yes, it was a drama, not a comedy. Although it's sometimes hard to tell, with their shows.