Theatre!

[sabotabby]

My parents, lovely people that they are, dragged my wretchedly ill ass to see My Name Is Rachel Corrie at the Tarragon. It was quite good. My reservations* aside, it was well-written, well-acted, and managed to convey the horrors of the occupation without feeling particularly like propaganda.

Anyway, so while we were waiting, we saw the list of upcoming plays at the Tarragon. They all look pretty awesome, to the point where I'm thinking of getting season tickets, but the highlight?

They are OMG doing The Black Rider, which is my favourite musical of all time that I've never seen on stage because hardly anyone does it.

*squeal*

Is it can it be time to get excited about going to the theatre in Toronto again?

* I would like it if instead of making a play about the one photogenic American killed in Palestine, they would maybe, for once, make a play about the thousands of Palestinians who have been killed in Palestine. It's like white people won't watch a play or movie that doesn't have a white main character. Not to diminish Rachel Corrie's heroism or the tragedy of her death, but she understood, and it's made very clear in the play, that it wasn't all about her.

Comments

[esizzle.livejournal.com]

true also however, white people are better at making stories about other white people than they are at making stories about non-white people.

[sabotabby]

That is a good point. Maybe they can translate some Palestinian plays into English and tour them here, though.

[sadie-sabot.livejournal.com]

I hear ya about the Rachel Corrie phenomenon. But I also want to see that play.

[sabotabby]

It's good. You should see it.

JEALOUS

[constintina.livejournal.com]

THE BLACK RIDER!

Re: JEALOUS

[sabotabby]

I am excited.

[zingerella.livejournal.com]

My mom, of all people, took me to see Serafina! (the play, not the movie), which was a play that had no white main characters at all, and that lots of white people watched.

Of course, it also had singing and dancing, along with the massacre.

[sabotabby]

Singing and dancing seems to prove an exception to the rule.

[human-loser.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, I just checked the Tarragon web site, and that IS the November Theatre production that started here in Edmonton like 7 or 8 years ago and has been touring semi-regularly since. Looks like it's 80% of the original cast (my friend Clinton is getting his Masters and can't do it...shame. He's brilliant), so that bodes well. Michael Scholar (who got the whole thing rolling in the first place) as the devil, and Rachael V. Johnston (I went to school with her!) are particularly impressive. I don't care for the script so much. Burroughs is interesting, but not inherently DRAMATIC, which becomes a problem in a play, but the staging and the awesome actors, and the music manage to prop it up.

I'm pretty sure you'll love the fuck out of it.

[sabotabby]

I am expecting to love it. The plot is—the plot. I figure good acting will either make it work or it won't, but anyway, I'm prepared to love the fuck out of it.

[frandroid.livejournal.com]

Yes.

[sabotabby]

Good.

[smhwpf.livejournal.com]

There's certainly more than an element of racism in that (the fact that you can only get people to see plays about white Westerners), but I think it's also that it's easier to grab people's attention by telling a story through the eyes of someone who's life the intended viewers an easily relate to - the shock of the juxtaposition of an 'ordinary' American girl leading an 'ordinary' (from the point of view of the audience) life with what she experiences in Palestine... in a way it seems to me to work for the same reason Buffy works in that sense. (There's a line from Rachel Corrie's last email that could come straight out of Buffy.)

Of course it should be possible, is possible, to do that with a Palestinian central character, show us their 'ordinary' life and how it is torn apart by the Occupation, and we should get those plays/films too.

[sabotabby]

I thought that Divine Intervention did a good job of that. Of course, it was weird and surrealistic and artsy, but it was also very much about trying to have a normal, ordinary life under horrible circumstances. That movie doesn't get enough love, IMO.

I did think of Buffy at one point during the play, and then I chastised myself for being such a dork. I feel better now.

[smhwpf.livejournal.com]

Not being dorkier than me is scant consolation. ;)

Will add film to mental list of those I ought to see one day if I ever get round to it...

[ericfaceplant.livejournal.com]

I saw The Black Rider in Vancouver last fall and it was amazing. You are going to love the fuck out of it.

[sabotabby]

Oh good. I'm way too excited over something that's not going to happen until November.