Flashing back to...the Greeks?

We're coming up on Tennis Week (yay!) and my mom will be here (double yay!), so there won't be any posting next week while we have fun around town.  I just hope the weather cools off a tad - it will be hard to sit outside and watch tennis all day if it's 90 degrees/90 percent humidity.  If I can find a particularly fun memory, maybe I'll do an auto-post while I'm away, but we'll see.  Maybe another photo of where I'd like to go during my November adventure (oh, ok, I convinced myself, there's a photo at the bottom of this post).  Anyway, here's a blast from the past - it reminds me that I haven't been to Shakespeare in the Park for awhile!  I'll have to try harder next summer...

8/19/09:  After two summers of signing up nearly every day for the ‘virtual lottery’ to Shakespeare in the Park, I finally won!  I won tickets to The Bacchae last night.  Whee!  I was positive it was going to rain to negate my winning feeling, but it didn’t!  It was a lovely night for theater.

If I say to you that Joanne Akalaitis is directing a Greek tragedy with a score by Philip Glass, you get a picture in your head of what the show is going to be like, don’t you?  You can’t help it, right?  Well, let me tell you that your mental image is probably right on the money…

As you might imagine, the production, at times, was stupefyingly pretentious.  But, sort of like a car accident, I couldn’t look away.  I didn’t really like it, but I didn’t hate it, either.  I found it kind of fascinating.  Like some sort of experiment. It’s really interesting, having read an article about the production in their playbill this morning, how all of the production team talked about this play as being frightening and shocking and moving.  The PLAY may be but this production certainly isn’t.  All of the ponderous ‘what.I.am.doing.now.is.so.IMPORTANT’ acting took away all of the emotion and tragedy. I didn’t even feel for Agave when she realized what she had done to her son. The show was done so clinically, it wasn’t moving.  The only, and I mean the only moment of any feeling was when Rocco Sisto (a longtime favorite of mine) came on as the Messenger and told the story of what happened to Pentheus.  It was a lovely moment and the audience broke into spontaneous applause when he was finished.  Everyone was so happy to have one moment of clarity that they had to express their joy.  Oh, ok, I don’t know how EVERYONE felt, but I’m going to stand by the statement, lol.

One of the ways the Philip Glass score was used that I did enjoy was with the Chorus.  The harmonies and the blend of their voices were ravishing, really gorgeous.  And I liked the idea of having the Chorus sing their dialogue instead of declaim it.  Though they did declaim while singing, shockingly.  I enjoyed HOW they were singing, but not the way they were singing it.  They were the biggest perpetrators of the ‘IMPORTANT’ acting.  You all know what I mean.  Plus, their choreography was hideous and their costumes were worse. Please believe me when I describe their costumes as some combination of MC Hammer, the Solid Gold dancers and an oompa loompa.   I kid you not.

photo credit: Damon Winter

I thought Jonathan Groff made an interesting Dionysus, though I thought he went a little overboard with his ‘bwah ha ha ha ha’ laughter moments.  You almost expected him to start twirling a mustache when he did them, but he didn’t have a mustache.  He was sort of playing Dionysus as a spoiled rock star, with some strutting and some attitude.  It was a little surface-y at times, but I think he’s on his way to an interesting characterization. His voice doesn’t really gibe with the Philip Glass music, though, but that kind of became an interesting dichotomy as the evening went on.  

Anthony Mackie was quite good as Pentheus, very rigid and upright, yet still extremely charismatic.  And his transformation before heading out to his doom was very good. Andre de Shields was wonderful as Teiresias, though I wonder why he was wearing black velvet trousers with diamond spangles on them…

The other actors didn’t really register with me, unfortunately.  Though I did find the guy playing the Herdsman to be a little slllllllllllllllllllllloww, as if he was thinking ‘I only have this one monologue so I am going to take as long as I can to give it!’  Yeah, no, act faster, please.

I liked the set very much and there were some really good effects with fire and water, and I liked the majority of Glass’ score.  Actually, the components to a fine production are probably here, but everyone’s attitude of self-importance derails things.  I did see only the third preview, though, so perhaps everyone will loosen up as the run goes along. The box office had a ‘sold out’ sign, but there were plenty of empty seats around me.  No one sat on either side of me, and half the row in front of me was empty.  There were also quite a few walkouts.  But, all in all, it was a lovely night to sit outside and watch some wacky theater, plus it’s only about 100 minutes with no intermission.  Perhaps with a few cocktails, it could be a really amazing evening!!  ;)