i went in to shining city knowing nothing about the plot, even though i had been sent the script and i had to market the event; it probably was better in hindsight, i was really engaged with the play. btw, what did you think of shining city pristine?
Gah sorry I just saw this. Yes I was super excited about the play and got like 6 other people to come with me. (I think the GYI people love me for that! Lol) The play, though, was severely disappointing. It remained stuck in the stereotypical depiction of pyschotherapy: "So...tell me how you feel." If you've ever watched HBO's In Treatment, you'll never watch fictional depiction of therapists in the same way again, and sadly, Shining City didn't live up to that. The ending (the ghost) seems to imply that the therapy didn't work for the grieving husband, but throughout the play, I didn't feel like therapy was even happening. Was it intentional or was it simply poor writing and development?
Speaking of writing, there was way too much "You know! You know?" The playwright skipped through so many issues (grief, relationships, infidelity, middle age unrest) but failed to have the courage to articulate each issue. Instead of diving deeper into a married man's lust for another woman, he just says, "It was like...you know? I never felt anything like that, you know?"
And then, there was the issue of homosexuality. A priest-turned-therapist wants to break up with his wife and takes a male prostitute home. What killed me was the part when the prostitute just takes the therapist's hand and uses it to grab his own crotch. People, homosexual desire can be depicted in a much more seductive and sensitive way. Just because it's about two men about to have sex doesn't mean they have to grab each other's crotch. There was nothing sympathetic at all about that.
The Guardian did a fantastic review on it (
Shining City, Royal Court, London | Stage | The Guardian) but it made me wonder if we were watching the same play.
Still, all this is just my criticism of the play. I did have a nice evening with my friends, and I loved the feel of the event. I know it sounds like I hated the play (well...I give it a rating 5-6/10) but I'm always glad to have any conversation at all about a play I've seen, because although I can always do that for movies (I loved IMDB message boards), it's really hard to do that for plays. You know how people say that if you have nothing nice to say, don't say it at all? I don't believe this about criticism for art. Criticism and discussion makes a piece of work more than just a single moment or a single experience. So, johony, what did you think?
Just came back from Melbourne and I swung by Melbourne Theatre Company to watch Godzone, a satire about Kevin Rudd. It was super funny in the first part, where "Kevin Rudd" was speaking a gibberish version of Mandarin, but the rest of the show moved on to other politicians and it was only funny in so far as it relied on repetition and recognition to gain laughter. The play was shockingly up to date, with references to the NSW leadership kerfuffle (to quote "Kevin Rudd", "I would have invited NSW, but we didn't know who to send the invitation to"), but other than the Kevin Rudd parts, everything was pretty unoriginal. It was kind of watching one of those skits in high school that "spoof" pop culture phenomena not by putting a twist on it, but by imitating it. It's only funny because your best friend is pretending to be the girl crawling out of the TV. Know what I mean?
Anyway, MTC. I watched the play in the new Sumner Theatre...which I was actually looking forward to seeing after Yalin Ozucelik, the lead actor in my favourite play When the Rain Stops Falling, told me that the play would run in that theatre while showing in Melbourne. To be honest, I think the theatre was a bit too flashy and shiny, with the LED-lit words on the wall. I loved Melbourne, and I loved how efficient the trams were, but c'mon, so many things were too new and too shiny. One of my favourite places was the National Gallery of Victoria, which I think I liked mostly because of the fantastic art collections, but also, the heritage of the place.
i might be going for 'ruby moon' at a smaller company - but i don't think the play really suits myself. still trying to find projects that i can involve myself in.
