Snowy Friday Night

[firstfrost]

Dragged harrock, tirinian, justom, and Katya to dpolicar's Murder in the Cathedral. I saw it once a very long time ago when the Shakespeare Ensemble put it on in the MIT chapel; I think it fit better with this more old-fashioned church space. And wow, are churches ever designed for pageantry and reverberating voices in a way that La Sala just isn't.

I found it reminded me somewhat of many of the ART's shows, in that the dialogue (especially the chorus) is not talkative, does not convey the plot forward so much as paint layers of poetry over and around the plot. (Though it wasn't as incomprehensible as many of those ART shows, for which I give it credit). There is the more normally talkative bit of the Knights Explaining Themselves, though, which just went to contrast the rest of it.

I think we were a very quiet audience - we forgot to clap for the first act - but perhaps being in a real church inhibits reaction. I am still very impressed with the guy who played Thomas (who I was impressed by as the Player King in R&G are Dead) - he has a lovely variable expressive voice, and could speak in rhyme without sounding at all forced about it. In addition to the Knights, the Optimistic Priest (the second priest) was a lot of fun to watch, too.

In other news, we continue to acquire more furniture. There are still the dining room chairs and the daybed for the guest room/library left to arrive, and theoretically tirinian will also be doing the bed -> sofa conversion, but we're close to done. Except lamps. And maybe another chair. :)

Comments

[dpolicar]

You aren't the first person to observe that being in a real church, for a play that has an unusual amount of real-churchiness to it, inhibits reaction. 'sOK, we figure anyone who is still awake by the end probably enjoyed the show... :-)