We’re back. We saw four plays (in three days) in Stratford, ON, at the Festival, and then made out leisurely way to Traverse City, MI, to visit with Deb’s family.
Beyond the single review posted for Possible Worlds, we were not compelled by the plays in Stratford. The productions were, of course, excellent, but the plays themselves did not really draw you in.
Pericles, our lone actual Shakespeare play, seems a gigantic contrivance to amaze the audience with the possibilities of coincidence.
Oedipus Rex must be moving from Classic to Ancient at this point: a play so far from its cultural mores that, to make sense of the true horror it must convey, modern audiences must thoroughly disable their sense of incredulity. And while I’m certain there are multiple essays on a number of its facets, I’m equally certain they’ve all been done by a thousand theatre students; I have nothing insightful to add.
The Physicists, while intriguing and unpredictable, also felt dated – it’s a Cold War farce. And would it be worth a second viewing?
During the trip I finished The Outer Limits of Reason – last referenced here. I also read in their entirety Niven and Lerner’s Fleet of Worlds and Thomas King‘s The Inconvenient Indian – the latter caused me periodic bouts of outrage and then depression. While I wouldn’t class him with Twain, as does one blurb, his remark that every single war and treaty between the North American Indians and the Europeans was about Land, Land, Land certainly rang true (which for no particular reason reminds me that Heinlein said the same thing in Starship Troopers). Definitely recommended.
And my thanks to Chris for blogging in my absence!
