blastedgoat

This play was performed in an intimate setting that caused the line between audience and action to blur. The action of the play was situated so that everyone had a unique perspective. The seating mirrored the v-shaped stage that was set with a piano, table and numerous rocking chairs. Everything was strikingly monochromatic. The whiteness of the character’s dress and surroundings did not always suggest a pristine world with pure figures gave off the air of dinginess.  The set had a certain amount of fluidity to it; this made the play artificial but it was balanced by the “reality” of servants working behind the scene like little mice, cleaning up after everyone. It was necessary to move the set around by people who seem connected in some way to the action. The space is “magically” transformed several times throughout the play which adds to the feeling that time has passed. I found the contemplations of the characters and their conversations with each other to be interesting. I noticed similarities between this play and Chekhov’s last play The Cherry Orchard which are both preoccupied by the deteriorating wealthy class in Russia as well as the passing of time. Russian literature to a large degree is about suffering but also learning from suffering if you want to survive. Overwhelming emotion and lack of continuous action on stage might have annoyed some people but I don’t mind listening to people talk, as long as they are talking about something interesting. I found the to be very much so and could tell the actors were submerged in their roles. I loved the leaves in the last scene which were symbolic of the approaching coldness of winter. The falling leaves also foreshadowed the death of the Baron and gave it finality. What was supposed to be happy ended on a sad note but the characters are strong and go on. Music is essential to Russian culture and its presence throughout the play emphasized that cultural difference. They sing, they experience loss and they live on to see more winters, more suffering, more death. I was impressed that the production was able to pull off a play as grim as this one with a cast of such young actors. Their ages certainly clue the audience into the sense that the scene is entirely constructed; as did the strange hanging lamp in the bedroom. What was so impressive to me was how they captured their characters quite well and presented the heavy themes of Russian literature in a fairly believable way.

I wasn’t upset by the ending of the play, it was more fun watching the reactions of people who clearly were expecting something else. The murder was subtle at first, the music added to the creepiness, the lighting especially added to the mood. A few individuals snickered and someone who was really confused blurted “Is she dead?” I enjoyed the “slow motion” sequence which combined exaggerated actions with pulsating rectangles of colored light. The fact that the lighting became to unrealistic at that moment emphasized the artificiality of the play and elaborated the ridiculousness of the plot itself. I try to imagine what went into making the set and am always looking for mistakes. I listen and watch for missed lines or cues, and any set or prop malfunctions. I don’t do this because I like to complain about every little thing but because those things are part of the experience of live theatre. The directors I have worked with stress that if “you can see the audience, they can see you” which isn’t always literal but it serves as a reminder that you must be alert at all times and fully submerse yourself into your character or role. I watch for actors that merely “deliver their lines” as opposed to those who genuinely interact with others.

I liked the quirky story of a song-writer zookeeper with a crazy a wife named Bananas and a girlfriend named Bunny who nibbles on a large carrot she pulls out of the refrigerator. The song Artie wrote in the tune of “White Christmas” reminded me of the songs from a play I was in during my junior year in high school. It was a comedy about a musical called Sing On! In the play a group of actors and technicians put on a musical written by an untalented, overbearing playwright named Phyllis Montague. All the songs in the “fake” musical were reworked tunes of Stephen Foster with lyrics by her equally untalented nephew, Monte Montague. The musical was about Queen Elizabeth, the supposed virgin Queen of England and her rumored “affair” with Lord Essex. At the end of the musical within a play one of the two actresses who play the role of Queen Elizabeth in the play has a baby just offstage prompting Phyllis to do a quick rewrite of the finale song. The whole cast and crew celebrates the birth of Violet’s new baby boy with a song to the tune of “Camptown Races“. From memory I can still recite the last few lines:

Though Queen Bess insisted on less sex, Essex,
told her single life’s no fun, let’s be a pair,
‘Cuz if they didn’t share, the royal line stops there.
So they decided they should have a son…

Well, you get the idea, I still remember quite a bit of it six years after I was in it, probably because it was such a strange play. I think those are the kind I like the best and The House of Blue Leaves definitely fits into that category.

Abbot, Rick. Sing On!: A Comedy about a Musical, Samuel French, Inc., 1991