jaala

1. What the heck took me so long? I'm ashamed, I really am. And to think I was invited to the Windsor Theatre party last year for being such a regular patron!
2. Is Bertold Brecht usually done with pre-show division of the audience into teams, improv, really broad slapstick, goofy accents and voices, Proclaimers-style narrators with guitars (and a banjo), characters randomly breaking into song (in addition to those times in the story when they indicate they are about to sing a song for those assembled), and pop, blues, folk, and doo-wop music? I really don't know for certain if it is as I've never seen one of his plays before!

It was certainly different. There was even a sand pit on stage for the actors to thrash about in. There was a lot of audience participation as well. My seat seemed to attract a lot of attention, which was both exhilirating and really nervewracking; I had to deliberately look down and avoid eye contact in order to stop actors from "picking on me." One of the iron shirts threatened me with a "spear" to my throat, Natella stopped to address me directly when complaining of how stupid and smelly the "common folk" are, the Governor clutched at my feet as they dragged him away... I could go on.

By the way, I loved the guy in the middle of that photo with the weird shorts. He was brilliant (and yes, I admit, slightly swish) as Azdak. There were a number of really very good actors in the cast, some of whom I wish I'd gotten to see do a bit more "straight" acting. I could guess which characters the director thought were especially important, sympathetic and/or compelling (e.g. the Corporal, who sent shivers down my back) because he allowed them to occasionally act normally. My only other complaint is that a lot of the narration was completely lost through poor diction (sung) or voices overpowered by guitars. The political machinations got rather convoluted at times so it was a definite disadvantage not to know what was happening.

Big job interview tomorrow. It will be interesting: the interview lasts 45 minutes, during which I need to play fife and perform physical drills. I must try to get some decent amount of sleep now.