Sunday, November 29, 2009

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

Great casting, great acting. Timothy Edward Kane, always a favorite, well paired with Sean Fortunato. Clever stage design.













From the Time Out review:

"Stoppard’s 1967 breakout play, a backdoor inversion of Hamlet by way of Waiting for Godot, remains an ingenious enterprise. Rosencrantz (Fortunato) and Guildenstern (Kane)—or is it the other way around?—are mere pawns on the fringes of Elsinore, used and abused by Claudius and Hamlet (not to mention Big Willie) as means to an end to which the poor schmucks are never privy.

Halberstam’s handsome production nicely emphasizes Stoppard’s conceptual trickery. Collette Pollard’s smart scenic design suggests a metaphysical backstage; the play’s Hamlet cast cleverly plays its scenes upstage, to a backdrop of a sprawling auditorium several times the size of Writers’ intimate space, while Rosencrantz and Guildenstern ruminate in the foreground. The cast is pitch-perfect: Longtime associates Kane and Fortunato have the kind of easy comic rapport that’s earned, not faked, on top of a remarkable facility with Stoppard’s quicksilver wordplay and intellectual rhythms. Gilmore radiates energy as the grandiose and mildly sinister leader of the tragedians. The only questionable step is Halberstam and sound designer Andrew Hansen’s use of new wave rock songs like “Burning Down the House” and “Once in a Lifetime” as act bumpers. After all, Stoppard’s play seems to illustrate that even the least among us are more than talking heads.

Friday, November 27, 2009

Thanksgiving: It's a Football Party















We hosted a bunch of Ms. S's workmates for Thanksgiving. We thought it was going to be low key and spread out because we were watching football, but there is that critical moment when the turkey comes out of the oven. It all worked. Fun.

Photo album here.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Richard III

A strong production at Chicago Shakes. Some reviews said there was a disconnect in acting styles between Richard (old school high theatrics) and the rest of the cast (Chicago naturalism) but things had tempered by the time we saw it. A great show for women actors. And an amazing, amazing fight scene at the end.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

All the Fame of Lofty Deeds

From Chris Jones's Tribune review: "But I think House Theatre has the best show here since "The Sparrow." No question. The House has got its groove back."














It was a fun benefit evening, with Jon Langford, cult music star on whose music the show is based, played a nice preshow set. Nate strapped on a guitar and a cowboy hat and was Nate.

A good time was had by all.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Boulder

A trip to Boulder to continue to clean out the house. Did a lot of archiving of posters and old theatre stuff.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Sunday, November 08, 2009

Book Club: The Golden Gate




















Maureen's off to Tokyo
So we won't be heading north.
It's now at Nina's, should we bring gnocchi?
Unless, she reneges, and sends us forth
In search of some suitable coffee shop
Where John and Liz might stop.
I'm ok, where ever, and I'll try not to be crabby
If not everyone has finished it, sadly.
But I really hope you will give it a try
And not just because it's my recommendation.
We need everyone talking and not one person's domination
of this group. The ending will make you weep, no lie.
See you on Sunday, please try a verse.
What's that line? The unread are cursed?

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Fake at Steppenwolf

Really, really great performances in this production at Steppenwolf. The script didn't quite work, but great performances.








From the Time Out review:

"Amateur paleontologist Charles Dawson caused a sensation in Edwardian England with his 1912 discovery of Piltdown Man. It took 40 years for the fossil find to be decisively labeled a fraud, a modern human skull with an orangutan’s jaw. To this day, the perpetrator’s identity remains uncertain. But Steppenwolf ensemble member Simonson has a theory, elaborated in his new play.

Toggling Arcadia-style between 1914 and 1953, Fake, like the fossil, tries to combine two uncomfortably matched pieces. The chronologically earlier scenes detail an investigation into Piltdown by fictional journalist Rebecca Eastman (Arrington) at the behest of Arthur Conan Doyle (Guinan). This plot has the giddy charm of an Agatha Christie drawing-room mystery; in the initial scene, which gathers notables including Dawson (Yando) and the Jesuit paleontologist Teilhard de Chardin (Goss), Doyle all but announces, “I suppose you’re all wondering why I’ve called you here.” Yando invests Dawson with a deliciously villainous formality, while Guinan’s bluff, jovial Doyle conceals a steely mind, Holmes and Watson in one.

If that were the whole of Fake, we’d have a briskly paced intellectual puzzle play, occasionally interrupted by Simonson’s fondness for dumping his research into fact-filled speeches. But the play flags in its modern half, in which three scientists form an uninspired love triangle. Still, the doubled roles offer the remarkable cast a chance to show off; Guinan, in particular, shifts brilliantly between Doyle and the more cerebral Jonathan, uncovering hidden layers in each."