Monday, February 25, 2008

Denver and Boulder

I was in Denver for work, a great lecture by Mac Gibson from the Oriental Institute on 3,500 years of Mesopotamian history, and five years of total destruction of sites during the war. Depressing. Ms. S came along and we had a lovely stay at the Brown Palace. Then it was up to Boulder to see Mom. Ms. S did some work to get her set up for a test drive in power wheelchair. I went on to LA for work, where I got in a Matthew Broderick sighting.

Saturday, February 09, 2008

Fragments and Susan Marshall

This actually turned out to be a great day of theatre, but the matinée production of Samuel Beckett's Fragments at Chicago Shakes was the highlight. Stunning. Stunning. Stunning.














From Chris Jones's review in the Tribune:

"Brook's collection of five short, rarely seen Beckett playlets, mostly penned in the 1950s, lasts an hour. In keeping with the 82-year-old Brook's longtime minimalist aesthetic, which grows ever more minimal, there is, well, a minimum of scenery and other accouterments beyond the voice and body of the actor. Jos Houben, Kathryn Hunter and Marcello Magni, three veterans of the justly renowned Theatre de Complicite, are traversing two oceans and three continents performing and re-performing, and thus perfecting, the same few minutes of acting in "Rough for Theatre I," "Rockaby," "Act Without Words II," "Neither," and "Come and Go." And given that Beckett was notorious for choreographing on the page every beat on the stage, this isn't exactly keep-it-fresh improv. It's a progressive journey into the depths of Beckett's creative soul. Whatever else you may think about this show, I guarantee you'll sense the unusual depth of the subterranean voyage."

In the evening we saw Susan Marshall & Company at The Dance Center with a performance of the Bessie Award-winning Cloudless. From Columbia's blub: "Structured as a collection of poetic short stories, Cloudless consists of 18 brief dances that gather emotional force as the evening progresses. Distilled to the edge of abstraction, the choreography ranges from explosive marriages of physical theatre and formality to intimate dances that use minimal elements to maximum effect."

Friday, February 08, 2008

Titus at Court

I'm a big fan of Charlie Newell, but this production of Titus Andronicus didn't quite cut it for me.


















The conceit was a play-within-a-play, set in the semipresent at “a meeting of an elite brotherhood.” Still, it's always a pleasure seeing Timothy Edward Kane and Kevin Gudahl on stage.

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Good Boys and True: Duke at UNC

Good Boys and True at Steppenwolf. The play got a little cliched in second act, but there were some stunning performances.

Oh yeah, and those other Good Boys and True? Duke over Carolina at UNC. Rockin'!