We really don't care about theatre do we?

@MarkHarrisNYC
When I was a kid, they showed actual scenes from plays on the Tonys. Sometimes they made me want to see plays. Thank God they stopped that.

any theatre homies know anything that's playing the San Diego Fringe? First one I see with a pedigree is an Edinburgh standup alum, Jon Bennett.

http://www.sdfringe.org/2014/shows.php

TAVI thread has me thinking again about the Steppenwolf production of This Is Our Youth. As a script, I thought it was great and confirmed the favorable opinion I have of Lonergan from his film work. Staging by Anna D. Shapiro generally good and interesting, in part because it was performed in a small space with the audience facing each other on two sides of the stage. (Is there a name for that? I thought black box was audience on all four sides, but what I'm talking about is like bleachers at a high-school football game. And the production of RENT that I saw a year or two ago was like this, too.) Performances are where I'm the most uncertain: Like I thought, coming out of the theatre, that Kieran Culkin was by far the best in the bunch, but am I only thinking that because his character is the showiest, all insults and mock-heroic language? I mean, I thought Cera was kind of milquetoast, but again, thinking about it: Is that because his character himself is a willowy, passive dude? Like, was he actually well-cast for the part? (Don't know exactly, because I'd never seen/read the play before.) I dunno, there were particular readings that seemed a little wooden, though. Maybe he's gotten better. Oh, but I read two separate reviews that praised him! Like, the Chicago Reader review singled him out specifically. Tavi, I thought, totally acquitted herself well. Struck me as kind of a Michelle Williams role? Like, Tavi doesn't have M-Will's range, but it's that kind of character. Huh, Kenneth Lonergan and Sarah Polley seem kind of simpatico, in a weird way.

This Is Our Youth is only doing 'modest' Broadway biz. NYC millenials can't figger out how to download theatre.

Staging of Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage downtown getting raves, $75 too rich for my blood tho.

was it toneehuis directed by Ivo Van Hove?

it's expensive but i'd pay to see anything IVH did.

Van Hove, yeah -- he also has an Angels in America production that's about to play here.

http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/2014/17/ivo-van-hove-on-directing-scenes-from-a-marriage-and-angels-in-america

Thanks for that link, excellent interview.

although the AIA looks a bit unconvincing. i love the idea of an empty stage too but having people sit on the edge of the proscenium when they need to sit down is a bit bizarre.

not unconvincing just... trying a bit too hard or something.

Any interesting fringe stuff in London? have an urge to see something

will let you know.

i know it's far ahead, expensive and not fringe but i'd be booking to see Van Hove's Antigone with J Binoche if i were you.

http://www.barbican.org.uk/theatre/event-detail.asp?ID=16573

booked for antigone in may !

fantastic!

you saw his "a view from the bridge", right?

yes it was pretty immense

Thanks for the heads-up, not-carers – booked for Antigone in London. Never seen an Anne Carson translation performed.

(Missed View from the Bridge – I heard some noise, but I've got an Arthur Miller block & didn't realise that it was a great production.)

Also booked for the new Tom Stoppard at the National in May. The description makes it sound like some rotten Radio 4 shit – "Hilary, a young psychology researcher at a brain-science institute, is nursing a private sorrow and a troubling question at work, where psychology and biology meet. If there is nothing but matter, what is consciousness?" – but I'll probably enjoy it.

will let you know.

i know it's far ahead, expensive and not fringe but i'd be booking to see Van Hove's Antigone with J Binoche if i were you.

http://www.barbican.org.uk/theatre/event-detail.asp?ID=16573

― Acting Crazy (Instrumental) (jed_), Wednesday, 22 October 2014 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

So want to but really don't know what I'm up to in March.

same old shit is what i'll be up to.

I am usually doing the same old shit, but things/life might get in the way just then.

But I do know what I'll be doing in Nov - watching "The Cherry Orchard" at the young vic, is what.

going to cheery orchard next week i understand it's one of his more upbeat plays

saw that a long while ago so it's checked off

haha

Suzan-Lori Parks' Father Comes Home from the Wars -- or rather, the first third of it -- just opened at the Public Theatre to raves, I managed to get a ticket this morning. Saw Topdog/Underdog when it ran, nothing of hers since.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/29/theater/father-comes-home-from-the-wars-by-suzan-lori-parks-at-the-public-theater.html

http://www.vulture.com/2014/10/theater-review-father-comes-home-from-the-wars.html

i guess i should jump on An Octoroon already

http://www.tfana.org/season-2015/soho-reps-octoroon/overview

Yes. Like how the blurb there starts off with press quotes and then goes to: Meta-melodrama with Forbidden Love! Humor! Feelings! Live Music! Wigs! Sensation Scenes! Slave Auctions! Exploding Steamboats! Photography! And More!

Down here in DC am catching up on August Wilson plays, thankfully they keep getting revived. Gonna see his 80s era one King Hedley II

x-post --yes I noticed "slave auctions" just thrown in there in the middle

k, bought side balcony for next Tues -- there goes theatre budget for first half of year (cept maybe Ghosts at BAM). The NYT Mag profile of the playwright worried me a little, but it won the Obie last year, and Brantley says it's better now.

i love how Hamilton was hailed as the greatest thing 2 weeks ago, and now the creator says "we have to fix it" for Broadway.

Theatre is so expensive generally.

Looks like just a slight delay though for Miranda's Hamilton, but enough to push it until the following year's Tony eligibility

at least at BAM you can get in for $35.

Have you ever seen Memphis the musical? Have wanted to see that and In the Heights for years, but never have (musicals with music I like)

A touring version of Memphis is gonna be in DC for 2 nights at the Warner

From the underground dance clubs of 1950s Memphis, Tennessee, comes a hot new Broadway musical that bursts off the stage with explosive dancing, irresistible songs and a thrilling tale of fame and forbidden love. Inspired by actual events, MEMPHIS is about a radio DJ who wants to change the world and a club singer who is ready for her big break. Come along on their incredible journey to the ends of the airwaves -- filled with laughter, soaring emotion and roof-raising rock 'n' roll. Winner of four 2010 Tony Awards® including Best Musical,

so the Pulitzer-winning The Flick is back, off-Broadway. Did anyone see it?

Nope. Curious about it. I see some folks thought it was too long

Haven't seen/read it either or any of Annie Baker's plays. Same way with Will Eno, it's either very much my kind of thing or it's wearing the cloak of being my kind of thing (embracing and then transcending stillness, tedium, static action).

it's a masterpiece & i am mad at you if you don't go, morbs

Running February-May 2016 at Steppenwolf, with a terrific director directing - Dexter Bullard, who did Bug and Mistakes Were Made and others.

http://www.steppenwolf.org/Plays-Events/productions/index.aspx?id=641

ok, going to Sunday matinee next week

(last day you can get in for $45)

Has anyone seen The Trial as a play? What was it like?

Saw a very Robert Wilson-y version long ago. Here are some design photos:

http://www.arnonedesigns.com/portfolio/k-impressions-of-kafkas-the-trial/

ok, going to Sunday matinee next week

(last day you can get in for $45)

― the increasing costive borborygmi (Dr Morbius), Sunday, May 17, 2015 12:56 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

missed this but super pleased, please report back. new play at signature opening in a couple months, also.

Did anyone stateside see Let The Right One In in NYC? I was the assistant designer in that and did a fair fuck of work on it but I guess I didn't get any credit?

I mean I got paid yeah.

Has anyone seen The Trial as a play? What was it like?

going in july /thanksfornothing

saw this one http://www.retz.co.uk/ in hackney a couple of years ago it was kind of fun but v loose and ~conceptual~ e.g. promenade/immersive/etc.

going to young vic one in june

Another cheerful evening of Germanic culture! xp

seldom seen a bad play at the young vic

we have Juliette Binoche coming up at BAM in Antigone

(directed by Ivo van Hove)

it was ok

thought Binoche was terrible tbh. the rest of the cast mostly good & great translation.