lysistrata
[may 22 2006, 21:47]
theater tonight. aristophanes. lysistrata. women refusing to stay at home while their men wage war on every other country decide to boycott their men's attempts to... well, fulfill their marital needs and by that spread peace all over ancient greece.
ah, well, i should have expected it.
i think there has been not a single other theater play that i've seen (or, in fact, heard of) that was so plump and crude. but let's get all that in order, in my usual anti-representative scale of ratings:
eight out of ten points for trying. the lines were (almost always) there, the acting was, well, let's call it solid for the sake of it.
a hundred out of a hundred points for daring. i always say that but in this case it's not taking something incredibly great and trying to put it on stage in a way that does not actually suck, but taking something dodgy and trying to put it on stage in the most ridiculous way. that succeeded.
now, let's get to the real stuff. a million out of a million negative points for, argh, sheer... i don't know, sheer stupidity. i know it was a class of twelve graders and although that time doesn't seem too long ago for me, it was absolutely stupid, immature and embarassing. it included awkward dancing routines, a weird strip scene with 'you can leave your hat on' in the background, guys running around on stage with metal pillars for boners and lots, lots, lots of horribly enforced puns. bad puns. not-funny puns.
so, another million out of a million negative points for standards. the first half was actually complete rubbish but the second half just got worse. and at the end of it (after another silly dance routine [to the same music they used two years ago {a sirtaki <i recorded>}]) everybody dropped the funny stuff and some of the actors stepped forward to tell the audience (in words they obviously didn't really understand themselves) that no, aristophanes didn't think it was that easy and that no, it probably wouldn't be, especially today where there are no winners in any war. yeah, that's right, but you can't just shove stuff like that into my face (by the way contorted with fear and agony) after pulling that kind of crap of for (and that was the best part) one and a half hour and expect me to suddenly go 'oh, i see, now let me ponder the meaning of life'.
i think i've never seen the substitute principal (who's really good at making speeches that focus on the 'daring' and 'prowess') sweat and pause so much while trying to find something to say. in the end, he confined himself with saying that the original staging in 400something before christ was actually a lot more explicit.
like i care!
i go to see a fucking theater play because i want to be influenced by it. i want it to provoke something inside me, make me think some things and if it can't do that, entertain me. a mixture of both is perfect, which is why i love the physicists so fucking much. it makes you laugh your ass of and then shoves something down your throat that makes you choke on that laughter and go 'oh, shit...'.
that thing there made me go 'oh shit...' as well but for a rather different set of reasons. it made me go 'oh shit...' because i could have been sitting at home watching ballermann 25 or something. with a beer. and a hand down my pants. and severe pricks of conscience why i wasn't doing anything productive. it made me go 'oh shit...' because i didn't think you could go any lower than last year's productions. but it could. it made me go 'oh shit...' because i thought about how much i complained about the meaninglessness of a midsummernight's dream, how phony and meaningless it was.
holy shit.
okay, let's put this into perspective. it was a theater class in school and they'll probably all be getting an a. especially the girls with short skirts and flashing boobs and stuff. no, that didn't happen but it was close. i wouldn't have been surprised.
that's it, i'm still rather speechless. shaking my head. still.
charon
ah, well, i should have expected it.
i think there has been not a single other theater play that i've seen (or, in fact, heard of) that was so plump and crude. but let's get all that in order, in my usual anti-representative scale of ratings:
eight out of ten points for trying. the lines were (almost always) there, the acting was, well, let's call it solid for the sake of it.
a hundred out of a hundred points for daring. i always say that but in this case it's not taking something incredibly great and trying to put it on stage in a way that does not actually suck, but taking something dodgy and trying to put it on stage in the most ridiculous way. that succeeded.
now, let's get to the real stuff. a million out of a million negative points for, argh, sheer... i don't know, sheer stupidity. i know it was a class of twelve graders and although that time doesn't seem too long ago for me, it was absolutely stupid, immature and embarassing. it included awkward dancing routines, a weird strip scene with 'you can leave your hat on' in the background, guys running around on stage with metal pillars for boners and lots, lots, lots of horribly enforced puns. bad puns. not-funny puns.
so, another million out of a million negative points for standards. the first half was actually complete rubbish but the second half just got worse. and at the end of it (after another silly dance routine [to the same music they used two years ago {a sirtaki <i recorded>}]) everybody dropped the funny stuff and some of the actors stepped forward to tell the audience (in words they obviously didn't really understand themselves) that no, aristophanes didn't think it was that easy and that no, it probably wouldn't be, especially today where there are no winners in any war. yeah, that's right, but you can't just shove stuff like that into my face (by the way contorted with fear and agony) after pulling that kind of crap of for (and that was the best part) one and a half hour and expect me to suddenly go 'oh, i see, now let me ponder the meaning of life'.
i think i've never seen the substitute principal (who's really good at making speeches that focus on the 'daring' and 'prowess') sweat and pause so much while trying to find something to say. in the end, he confined himself with saying that the original staging in 400something before christ was actually a lot more explicit.
like i care!
i go to see a fucking theater play because i want to be influenced by it. i want it to provoke something inside me, make me think some things and if it can't do that, entertain me. a mixture of both is perfect, which is why i love the physicists so fucking much. it makes you laugh your ass of and then shoves something down your throat that makes you choke on that laughter and go 'oh, shit...'.
that thing there made me go 'oh shit...' as well but for a rather different set of reasons. it made me go 'oh shit...' because i could have been sitting at home watching ballermann 25 or something. with a beer. and a hand down my pants. and severe pricks of conscience why i wasn't doing anything productive. it made me go 'oh shit...' because i didn't think you could go any lower than last year's productions. but it could. it made me go 'oh shit...' because i thought about how much i complained about the meaninglessness of a midsummernight's dream, how phony and meaningless it was.
holy shit.
okay, let's put this into perspective. it was a theater class in school and they'll probably all be getting an a. especially the girls with short skirts and flashing boobs and stuff. no, that didn't happen but it was close. i wouldn't have been surprised.
that's it, i'm still rather speechless. shaking my head. still.
charon