Monday, December 18, 2006

Preview of "Shipwreck, Coast of Utopia.''

The first half was quite boring and too expository. Too much blah-blah-blah. The second half was outstanding. I think Brian O'Byrne is a marvelous actor. He carries the entire thing as far as I'm concerned, especially near the end when he delivers a wrenching speech about the death of a child. Ethan Hawke did very well, too -- portraying a gruff, boisterous scalawag (forgive me, Russian history buffs; I can't remember which scalawag), and I thought he was very engaging, although my wife thought he was doing a Jack Nicholson imitation up there. This one has gunshots, betrayal, nudity, flag-waving, you name it. In case you haven't heard about the plotline, the play (by the great Tom Stoppard) is a prequel to the Russian Revolution; you get to know the six friends who helped set the thing in motion. Or something like that. I liked the second half because politics, romance and friendship get conflated in ugly and unpredictable ways. In case you are wondering (both of my readers) how a grad student can afford to go to Broadway so much, the answer is: I wait out in front of the theater and wait for desperate theater goers to sell me their extra seats for dirt cheap.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

i heard this was like three hours four hours long

cactuseaters said...

Actually, it was two and a half hours, still long enough to get very hungry in the middle of it --- no really good snacks within walking distance during intermission.

Anonymous said...

I'm fascinated by rats, too. Did you know they can squeeze through holes the size of quarters? They can hold their breaths underwater for a long, long time; a few years ago in Brooklyn there was an outbreak of rats swimming up the pipes into peoples' toilet bowls. But I don't see rats half as often as you do. Haven't seen one sunning itself in front of Dodge, for example, although I did see one dart out of the garbage pile, and I screamed. Whenever I see them, I freak out.

I too loved the Kiki Smith exhibit, although I didn't find it scary. See the picture of the girl swimming with rats? Those rats seemed nice.

Anonymous said...

yeah you see rats more than anybody! cant believe they got in your house you sure they werentmice?

cactuseaters said...

Saki, you have more bravery than I do. I just saw the kiki smith, once again, with my parents -- and it scared me even more. The guts got to me (also the werewolf imagery and the wolf girl who makes cello noises when you walk past her. I can't believe a rat can squeeze through a quarter-sized hole! No wonder they're crawling into my apartment all the time.

cactuseaters said...

By the way, I just read the piece in the Times that said the "coast of Utopia'' show was kind of boring. Funny --- I had, pretty much, the same reaction (and thought it meant that I was a Neanderthal) It's good that Christopher Isherwood and I agree on this one.