Sunday, August 30, 2015

It's True! FORBES Magazine says so!



It's true! Forbes Magazine says so (also The Irish Times, Time, and others), so it must be true: Neurotic obsessions use the same part of the brain as creativity
This pleases me no end, and feels intuitively right:  All my endless inventions of trouble and imagined air plane, car, and train crashes and all the rest of it are probably using some of the same mental same tools as creating scenes and characters and worlds.  

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Lake Pix 8-22-15

I had a quick overnight at the lake--Andy and David and Ellen were there longer. Before I got there,  Andy and David took pictures of one of the adult eagles eating on a branch just at the front porch:



Looking very noble, but really making sure no one is going to grab her fish.

My personal wild bird adventure yesterday came  when I was lying on the dock and heard a noise, sat up, and a four foot tall Great Blue heron was on the other end of the dock (the land end) just about two feet from my feet.  I squealed and it was mildly startled, but walked away, up near the boats. So far this year no bats or great northern water snakes.


Tuesday, August 04, 2015

A Critique of MOTHER OF THE MAID by Jane Anderson at Shakespeare & Company

In my family we are huge fans of Shakespeare & Company, and this vacation my husband and I saw two Shakespeare plays, as well as three of the contemporary plays, and we’re booked for the one with my heart-throb, John Douglas Thompson.

The last one we saw was a preview of Mother of the Maid, which is brand new. I have some issues with the writing, even though I was moved to tears by the big scene between the Mother and Joan of Arc:  Anne Troup was a fine Joan, and I could happily watch as well as listen to Tina Packer reading the back of a cereal box.

I am also fond of spin-offs of literature and history and have written several short stories of that type myself.  All of this is to make it clear I am writing this post with deep affection and respect for everything I’ve ever seen done at S&Co.

I was, however, jarred and put off by the language in Mother of the Maid.  In these re-visionings of events from the far past, it is always a problem as to how to handle the language.  My preference is to keep it as simple as possible, thus keeping attention on the story.  Also, maybe it’s that I was hearing too much Shakespeare, and the Shakespeare & Co. crew speaks Shakespeare’s speeches so well that you get spoiled– both by their delivery of the lines and, of course, by Shakespeare’s words themselves.

The other contemporary plays I saw  this season, however,  fell well on the ear:  Sarah Treem’s The How and Why manages some beautiful speeches using imagery from science.  The Unexpected Man is largely made up of two people telling themselves stories, and their voices and stories were entertaining and graceful.

But Mother of the Maid – again granting the intrinsic problem of creating language for medieval French peasants– is overwhelmed by an awkward mishmash of catchphrases. I was fine with everyone speaking British– it gave some distance and was no more unlikely than American English.  What bothered me was things like “I’ll be there for you,” and “sucks” as an epithet.  There was a lot of that.  Much too much.

Then there was St. Catherine, who spoke in a not-quite Valley girl style that, when combined with the playwright’s effort to make her connect with us dumb audience members, set my teeth on edge.  Worst was probably the moment when St. Catherine explains how parents always go to their children’s recitals and ball games–so therefore, we must understand that if we had burnings at the stake nowadays, we’d go to support our kids at those too.  It was just condescending and totally unnecessary.

St. Catherine’s role was interesting, and the actress was terrific in The How and Why, but I could have used a lot less of her in this one, at least after the lovely first scene when Joan embraces her knees.  That was nice.

Anyhow, Tina was wonderful, the final speeches of Nigel Gore and the Pierre were moving.  The prison scene between the Mother and Joan was a knockout.

But the language was like– you know?--  totally sucky?