One year on..!

Hi all, no, I can't believe that this was a year ago.

Last year was all doom and gloom and plays in Hungarian, this year seems to be dominated by dance troupes and Chekov in Hungarian. So the choices below are from the more 'standard' end of the spectrum, but each intriguing in their own way.

Date: Thursday 11th October.

Vote early, vote often, in order of your choice... by Thursday 4th.

1. Long day's journey (bring your 4-hour cushions; that'll do, pig)

2. The history boys (language on steroids)

3. The playboy of the western world (Christopher Malomo as the playboy)

Short notice - private matter!

Hi all!

Short notice, I know, but there’s 4 of us going to Private Lives at the Gate tomorrow Tuesday:

  http://www.gate-theatre.ie/prog.html

I have at least 2 more tickets on reservation.  If you’d like to come, let me know by the end of today.

The crux of the matter?

It’s that time again… well, it was going to be an election between two, but I see that Cosi Fan Tutti finishes this Saturday, so that leaves us with:

The Crucible at the Abbey
http://www.abbeytheatre.ie/whatson/crucible.html
Wednesday 6th June (a week away from today)

Let me know by Friday if you’d like to come!

Some other links for ye:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_witch_trials
http://faculty.biu.ac.il/~barilm/witches.html
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SAL_CRU.HTM

marcas

ps: I’ve just migrated email clients, and I’ve tried to tidy up the email list… as usual, if you’re on it and don’t want to be, or know someone who’d like to, please let me know.

American Buffalo at the Gate

Anne turned round and said “I’m dying to see what you say about this one on your website!”.. yes, with exclamation mark.

And Michele beat me to it by asking “Can I see your programme?.. see can I find out what that was all about…”.

And then we all got to discussing, I thought Bobbie was going to turn out to be the treacherous one, but did you notice that Teach hocked his watch…

All very allegorical… lots of dysfunctional rantings… undercurrents of human communication, friendship, betrayal and trust... cast in “you know, I came, what are you saying, will it rain today, do you think?..”… Waiting for Whom?.. earthy swearing and a shop trashed… the prodigious power of the human mind bent on stealing a nickel.

You see this review is a bit disjointed… all these “…”… not much happening, you would think… you may be right, you know?..

…but stick with it, let it seep into your mind, and mature, place yourself in the shoes of each of the characters in turn, including those off-stage. I think you will be rewarded.

So I've given it 4 stars, on reflection. What do ye think?

Next up: American Buffalo vs. Julius Caesar?

Hi all,
and it was great to see so many of ye (fourteen!) at the Abbey for Scandal...

Shane rang me up last night to give me a kick up the arse for the next one. This time, we chose a day and a date:
Thursday, 1st March

and then we had a looksee what is going to be on. We thought we'd nominate for voting these two:

American Buffalo
http://www.gate-theatre.ie/prog.html

Julius Caesar
http://www.abbeytheatre.ie/whatson/caesar.html

Let me know what ye think, and we'll choose by Tues (!) of next week. Leave your comments in the space provided!

marcas
http://threepointfivestars.blogspot.com/

School for Scandal

After three heavy ones, we thought we'd go for something with a few guaranteed laughs...

- School for Scandal at the Abbey
- http://www.abbeytheatre.ie/whatson/scandal.html
- Thursday 18th January

Anna Karenina

In keeping with tradition, and via a poll of 6 of us (less Eoin and De, I think), we came up with a rating of... ... ... 3.5 (as made no difference)!..

I thought it was (guess what, Eoin!) intriguing, but ultimately didn't engage. I was expecting a tragic but moral heroine, but by the end she just seemed childish and petulant. The production then relied for effect on stamping of feet, bright lights, an obvious Death.

I was thinking, too, that a play is not a place for musical motifs. But then, what's to become of Grieg's music for Peer Gynt?

Look what I found here...

...and now, triva time!.. the music.
- Alexi's theme: music by Zbigniew Preisner for Trois Couleurs: Bleu
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108394/
- Seriozha's theme: Spiegel im Spiegel, Arvo Part
- A bit of Gorecki's Symphony No.3 crept in towards the end
- Anyone know the dancing tunes?

So now... pipes in hand, matches at the ready!..

For the love of God...

...turn off your mobile phones. And now, welcome to ThreePointFiveStars. .!

When I came back from Holland, a group of us organised to go to a play in the Dublin Theatre Festival... over drinks afterwards, we agreed "three and a half stars", and yeah, let's do this again. We've been to three so far - the Alice Trilogy, Doubt and Anna Karenina - and each time, we came up with... three and a half stars. You can't argue tradition.