Make me laugh!

[webcowgirl]

We went tonight to see I, Lear, a two man comedy show (one act) currently playing at Trafalgar Studios. During one scene (a bit from The Cherry Orchard or some other hateful Chekov play, they're all the same), the actor was stomping around hunched over, pretending to be an old man, stumping around with a cane. He then fell over and attempted to push himself off of the stage with his cane ... and the tip broke off. It wasn't staged, you could see the fresh wood where the lovely object had snapped. As he lay there rocking like a tortoise, the other actor came over to complete the scene by helping him up (by his cane), and said, "You've really twatted it up this time!"

I swear I have never heard anything so rude come out of an English person's mouth in the whole time I've been here, and I just completely lost it. It was even better than when he spit his "teeth" out at the audience ("Just tic tacs! Witness the power of theater!"). I was also losing it because the snapped cane was messing the actors up because they were laughing at each other. J was a bit embarassed.

Overall this was a pretty fun show, light and silly and just my speed on a Friday. I'll write more about it on my other blog but I laughed so hard I just had to share it a little bit.

Other funny line:
Watson: One final question - why did he paint the doorway yellow?
Holmes: It's a lemon entry, dear Watson.

PS: Russia is bombing Georgia, and instead all the news is about the Olympics. WTF?

Comments

[shadowdaddy.livejournal.com]

unbearably minute expressions of emotion

I think that part of the problem challenge of Chekov is exactly that - those expressions are incredibly hard to actually convey to an audience. Frequently, this either means the emotions aren't conveyed well, or at all, and so then what's the point? And after several unsatisfying productions, you do have to stop pointing fingers at the companies and start wondering about the base material itself.

I'm sure the plays benefit from being seen several times, so you know the characters and situations well enough to really understand what resonates and why - but the 'once bitten twice shy' thing also applies, and if you're not excited in the first place, it's hard to get excited about going back.

_{(and for the record, I haven't given up on Chekov at all, I'm just pointing out that I can understand why one would. And I'm certainly aware of the issues I may face if I go see a production...)}

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

I think those are all perfectly fair points. What I suspect is this may come down very much to specific audience personalities - the tiny suggestions will resonate strongly with some people and leave many of the rest non-plussed. There are some good questions to be asked about whether such works are becoming increasingly less relevant in societies which no longer seek to repress discussion of feelings but in fact positively encourage it. Wither stoicism then?

OTOH, films such as "The Remains Of The Day" have been great successes and remained so, so this huge generalisation is clearly just that.