Last night: a strong, yet soft, wind blowing. The air smelling like spicy, white flowers, blooming just a little early. The evening still light, reaching in inches further north as the days progress toward spring. Writing in Joe Bar, the smoky scent of popcorn rising into the loft, preparations for a party, auctioning off remnants from the Harvard Exit. I ran to catch a bus downtown before the festivities began, but the crowds and rumble of voices grew with each passing minute.
Went and saw the Seagull Project's "The Three Sisters." Loved the set, lighting, staging (Jennifer Zeyl, Robert J. Aguilar, John Langs, Dir.) Didn't understand the female costumes, didn't seem to be set in any particular time, and that lack of specificity distracted me from the overall story, what was the setting, then? Favorite character in this production was Irina (Sydney Andrews), favorite in the Cornish production had been Olga (Jenna Vershen), I think it was the choice of translations, stage time, and the former Olga was played as more of a heroine in her own life, than in this one. (In Act III, in the confrontation with Natasha over Anfisa, the Cornish Olga dominated, and in this production, Natasha (Hannah Victoria Franklin) did.) And in the Cornish production, I felt a greater sense of dreams diminishing more and more as each Act followed the next, 'til I arrived at the end with the sense that the dream of Moscow was laid to rest, but life would go on. The sisters would face reality, and go on. I had a stronger sense of what story (out of many) was being told by that director (Paul Budraitis), everything leading to one conclusion, a "driving action" if you will. (And that concept of storytelling is becoming more clear for me as I see it. The concept drilled in by my audition teacher.) In this version, though they faithfully told Chekhov's story, I wasn't sure what the "driving action" was, where was it all going? And last night the audience laughed in odd places, during what seemed like serious confessions, though maybe there was a choice made to play them more melodramatically, and so they were playing for a laugh, i.e., the scene in Act IV, where Masha (Alexandra Tavares) is saying good-bye to Vershinin (David Quicksall), and is wailing and not wanting to let go, even before the point where Olga (Julie Briskman) was trying to drag her away, and she was still hanging on, people were laughing. Was that supposed to be funny? When the one thing in life that brought you happiness is leaving, is that funny? I don't know. It's possible I read somewhere that Chekhov's plays were comedies,(according to Chekhov) but I can't remember now. I think my favorite actor in the show was Noah Duffy as Rode, (and CT Doescher as Tusenbach), I just enjoyed his time on the stage. But overall, there were characters on stage who moved in bubbles. Most of those characters distinct, actors making interesting choices, but not connecting with the others. Finding small details and missing the bigger picture (again, driving action.) Perhaps they needed more time in ensemble. Or perhaps, that's a conscious Chekhovian choice, to talk but never connect, to want to be heard but not to listen, as we often do in life. (I had the same response to the Cornish production, they connected more, but didn't have the text that night I saw it, though both productions got more solid after intermission.)
The overall feeling of the production worked for me. I found the play and characters running in the background of my mind after, even when I thought I was thinking about something else.
Time for the day to start.
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