This is probably going to be VERY boring for those of you who aren't into theater, I'm just saying. So consider yourselves warned.
Anyway, I got up at an ungodly hour (7 am--actually early even for a normal, working human being) to do my laundry. I like to have my clothes clean, what can I say? I made the very smart decision to go to the laundromat down the street, so now my jeans are warm and soft and not weirdly stiff and wet at all. Wonderful. We've got to look for the small victories here.
Now, I went and saw Measure for Measure today, and boy, getting to that theater was a hassle. First of all, the Metro app that has been a godsend so far has now failed me. :( I had to take the RER B2 line to get to this town on the outskirts of Paris called Sceaux. ("Sceaux" is just pronounced like "so." Kind of like how "scion" is "sigh-on." I learned that one that hard way.) I spent the time waiting for the laundry to stop spinning looking up where all the possible transfers were. Finally, I mapped out my route, and things were going perfectly--until I tried to leave the Sceaux RER station.
This is a very nice view when you're not trapped in the station.
This horrible "aaaahhhhnnnn" sound came out of the turnstile, and a giant red X appeared, which is a universal sign for not-letting-you-through-missy. Now, normally this is not a problem, as you can just go to the recharge station and put some more money on your card. Except... all the stations were on the other side. My father always feared this would happen to us in DC, except the DC Metro people are smart enough to put money machines on both sides of the turnstiles. So yeah, it happens. I had also thought that weekends included all zones on your Navigo, but maybe that's just for the student ImagineR card. Ugh.
Anyway, while thoughts of becoming a train station hobo flickered through my mind, a young gentleman noticed my distress and tapped his card to let me out. Thank goodness. It was very, very appreciated, especially since that station was very empty. I know suburbia is not as crowded as the city, but even Plainville has people out and about on Sundays.
Getting to the theater--called Les Gémeaux, or "The Gemini (Twins)"--was a journey of twists and hills and avoiding canine excrement. Then I got to the theater! Then it was locked. And the sign on the door said it was closed on Sundays. Fearing that I had gotten punked, I checked my email, and I nearly fainted when I saw a message from Professor Gunn. Thankfully, it wasn't, "Oh, haha, I gave you the wrong date. Oops." But that still didn't solve my problem.
I headed to a small little sandwich shop for my typical cheese-and-tomato on a baguette sandwich, at a bargain with a 7-Up and a pear tart for €6,50. That's how much just a sandwich is in Paris. Anyway, wandering back to the theater, I was glad to see that it was indeed open. I sat down to some Virginia Woolf while waiting for my professor, worried I'd forgotten what he looked like.
Sorry. This kid had a very big head. Kind of like every person who sits in front of you in math class or at the theater.
So... the show. I enjoyed it. It was very different. It's one of Shakespeare's "problem plays," which I define as some asshole in the beginning decides to cause a random problem. Lots of chaos ensues, and when you're reading/watching, you're thinking, Wait, how on Earth is this going to get resolved in 30 pages/minutes? Then, Shakespeare does it. I don't know how, but he does. We could call it deus ex machina, but he thinks of stuff that no author would ever think of.
Since this was a Shakespeare show, there was a lot of mention of sex. And even though all that visual stuff isn't part of reading the play, in performances, the directors really go all out with turning up the sexual tension. It seems dirty, but I think Shakespeare would be delighted. His plays do involve a lot of jokes about the male anatomy and characters cross-dressing to impress their love interests. (Wow, he was ahead in some ways.)
This production had some uncomfortable scenes that I think were more artistic license than conveying the plot. I guess it raised the stakes, as my impression while reading was that nothing felt too serious. But this show was really into the thing where the entire cast is onstage pretty much all the time. The characters in the scenes are doing what they do in the play, but the other characters watch on as some creepy, omnipresent psuedo audience. They also seemed to break the fourth wall a lot, and they also would appear in the audience as part of a crowd. I guess that's not uncommon nowadays. What is uncommon, however, is random nudity that you were totally NOT expecting. This guy onstage was stripping down, and I was thinking, Well, I guess this is implying that he's going to be strip-searched. But unlike in movies where they cut away or pretend that underwear doesn't come off, he just totally stepped out of his, which had me thinking, Wait, did I miss something? I think of my theater buddy Kate McLellan and how horrified she would've been with this surprise. I always liked to surprise her with nudity in shows because I am a cruel friend, but since this surprised me, I guess karma is coming back for me.
Anyway... What can you say after mentioning a naked man? There was lots of dancing and ethereal music. At one point, I think a cell phone went off. Why why why??? I felt disgruntled. When the show ended, the cast came out for one, then two... whoa they just kept running back onto the stage again and again. They bowed a total of five times--10 actually, since they bowed, reshuffled, and then bowed again each round. And people stood up, which I was happy to see, since I think the Brits are too stuffy about not standing up for good productions.
I tried to avoid looking at the subtitles to immerse myself in the Russian. I'm guessing iambic pentameter is out the window for these actors, so they were just really into their roles. Sadly, I did not pick up any Russian. I chuckled at some French translations, like how "adulterer" is translated to what sounds like "fornicator" in English. Ha ha. I'm okay without the English. I'm used to alternative productions. I just saw my first opera in November, and we once (mistakenly) attended an ASL production of The Secret Garden. (We learned how to say "house," "hill," and "wick," given that those words were repeated in a few songs over and over.)
Glad to be back with the theater. :)
Oh, the song choice was because the dance they would begin to do randomly is the waltz. I don't really have a lot of waltzes on my iTunes account, which I'm sure would disappoint my old piano teacher, Maryjane, but I had to give you a bit of an impression.
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