tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76933024894021789252024-03-17T20:04:13.407-07:00James Armstrong, PlaywrightJames Armstrong, Playwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07007390197279245395noreply@blogger.comBlogger971125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7693302489402178925.post-36247004556182967312024-03-17T12:29:00.000-07:002024-03-17T12:29:25.865-07:00Censoring Marino Faliero<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The latest issue of <i><a href="https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/journal/bj">The Byron Journal</a></i> recently arrived, including my article "Shaping a New <i>Marino Faliero</i> for Drury Lane."</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK03mPYcdZXx11EcMThqgqKc_cZmdFMCItHwKqh_uYMBSkWgf0d8A8ZmbNpAFRA0HY8U4UXtyb7x6-_digyM1j4OdSur42jltl-qLfu7O6DJcm_be1IFxGdmjrTSR_I_ODbmbK1RrX0IDcr4yXO0Ca8q9xr3bs0wdOf1GkUYcqNClsdnCiZDOkXSmkXGc/s999/bj.2023.51.issue-2.cover.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="999" data-original-width="717" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK03mPYcdZXx11EcMThqgqKc_cZmdFMCItHwKqh_uYMBSkWgf0d8A8ZmbNpAFRA0HY8U4UXtyb7x6-_digyM1j4OdSur42jltl-qLfu7O6DJcm_be1IFxGdmjrTSR_I_ODbmbK1RrX0IDcr4yXO0Ca8q9xr3bs0wdOf1GkUYcqNClsdnCiZDOkXSmkXGc/s320/bj.2023.51.issue-2.cover.png" width="230" /></a></div>I first encountered the censored version of <i>Marino Faliero</i>, the only one of George Gordon Byron's plays to be performed during his lifetime, when I was in California for a reading of my play <i><a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2019/05/bones-of-sea-tomorrow.html" target="_blank">Bones of the Sea</a></i> at Pasadena Playhouse.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Technically, the play was self-censored, as there is no indication that John Larpent, the Examiner of Plays at the time, demanded any more cuts than the <a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2019/09/drury-lane.html" target="_blank">Theatre Royal at Drury Lane</a> willingly provided. Still, the theatre was effectively forced to make some of the most devastating cuts for political reasons.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">You can read all about it in the article, which appears alongside some other brilliant pieces, including an analysis of Byron and slavery by Christine Kenyon Jones. She was the co-author of a great book on <a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2021/01/dangerous-to-show.html" target="_blank">portraits of Byron</a>, and recently wrote a new book on <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/jane-austen-and-lord-byron-9781350381421/" target="_blank">Jane Austen and Lord Byron</a>.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Other articles in the issue include Ioannes P. Chountis on Byron and Edmund Burke and Konstantina Georganta on the Victorian reception of Byron's "<a href="https://englishverse.com/poems/the_isles_of_greece" target="_blank">The Isles of Greece</a>."</span></div>James Armstrong, Playwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07007390197279245395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7693302489402178925.post-59945120233746448362024-03-10T11:48:00.000-07:002024-03-10T11:48:45.959-07:00Warrior Sisters of Wu<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">During the second century, a mysterious disease was identified in China, soon causing a devastating epidemic. (Sound familiar?) The chaos caused by the disease led to the collapse of the Han Dynasty and the emergence of three new kingdoms in China.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhisAcglTgn-hN6qF0zpv3v3oQtUbtbqua7i3NwFO-Z4iXwcEABwxZKqeGwjXr3JzHMGNREhnouEutLkUoiWOPRTrTR7dbk78U6VqFVEhHMuqkHsrnTFuuIW3It92Z1Wvi2dqtKTXYfBDPu3vTlpqz9ZDIkR39SgvIRNTiPzpPen_MT7T51USqEtyR_98s/s1007/Wu.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1007" data-original-width="750" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhisAcglTgn-hN6qF0zpv3v3oQtUbtbqua7i3NwFO-Z4iXwcEABwxZKqeGwjXr3JzHMGNREhnouEutLkUoiWOPRTrTR7dbk78U6VqFVEhHMuqkHsrnTFuuIW3It92Z1Wvi2dqtKTXYfBDPu3vTlpqz9ZDIkR39SgvIRNTiPzpPen_MT7T51USqEtyR_98s/s320/Wu.jpeg" width="238" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />The events of this period are related in the historical novel <i>The Romance of the Three Kingdoms</i>, which has in turn been dramatized over and over again. Now, <a href="https://www.panasianrep.org/" target="_blank">Pan Asian Repertory</a> is back with a fresh new adaptation by playwright Damon Chua.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Last night I finally saw Chua's play, <i><a href="https://www.panasianrep.org/wsw" target="_blank">Warrior Sisters of Wu</a></i>, which sadly closes today. This fun romp through an already fictionalized history of China focuses on two sisters in Eastern Wu, one of the three titular kingdoms of the novel. The sisters, Wan and Qing, are only minor characters in the original, but have come to take on greater importance over time.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In Chua's version of the story, Qing is the feisty older sister who longs to fight in battle. Played by <a href="https://kimwuan.com/" target="_blank">Kim Wuan</a>, Qing is much better with her sword than she is speaking to people, particularly the young general Sun Ce (<a href="https://www.davidleehuynh.com/">David Lee Huynh</a>), whose perceived antipathy for her veils a deep-seated crush. Qing's younger sister Wan (<a href="https://resumes.actorsaccess.com/nancyma" target="_blank">Nancy Ma</a>) is much more easy going, but is still ready and willing to take up a sword when needed.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">All of this takes place against a background of religious conflict between Confucianism and Daoism. The fact that Sun Ce is a follower of Confucian values while Qing is a devout Daoist doesn't help matters. Still, we can see their attraction develop throughout, aided and abetted by Wan and her fiancé Zhou Yu (<a href="https://www.vinkridakorn.com/" target="_blank">Vin Kridakorn</a>). </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The result is a delightful romantic comedy with some amazing stage combat. <i>Warrior Sisters of Wu</i> deserves to be taken up by regional theatres across the country.</span></div>James Armstrong, Playwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07007390197279245395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7693302489402178925.post-59602956040193864702024-03-08T08:10:00.000-08:002024-03-08T08:10:32.899-08:00Provincetown Players<div>I was supposed to see Jeffery Kennedy speak on the Provincetown Players earlier this week, but circumstances intervened, and I missed his talk.</div><div><br /></div><div>Fortunately, Kennedy's talk is now available on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at3XkASsjYA" target="_blank">YouTube</a>. He spoke about material in his new book, <i>Staging America: The Artistic Legacy of the Provincetown Players</i>.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6DBmqqfZF703PbqhLyN9er7riD4w_BmRnxsujFqy-cZ9PzoVHcR5241VgZVCETzJuqeSqHgYupVVtfetTnsq340Rxm_MUancLTGnqZIgW_ofNVE6jzeaAdbeEWC1LQZITTG68E2sNAsnUU5fjK5FsKHzG6FyjIg7yPtQBJOlEZBxJPLi4OBHghQhPyXQ/s466/Staging.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="466" data-original-width="311" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6DBmqqfZF703PbqhLyN9er7riD4w_BmRnxsujFqy-cZ9PzoVHcR5241VgZVCETzJuqeSqHgYupVVtfetTnsq340Rxm_MUancLTGnqZIgW_ofNVE6jzeaAdbeEWC1LQZITTG68E2sNAsnUU5fjK5FsKHzG6FyjIg7yPtQBJOlEZBxJPLi4OBHghQhPyXQ/s320/Staging.jpg" width="214" /></a></div>On the cover of the book is a recently rediscovered painting by Charles Ellis showing a number of the original players, including Christine Ell, George Cram Cook, James Light, Eugene O'Neill, and O'Neill's childhood friend, Hutchinson Collins.</div><div><br /></div><div>It was Cook who founded the Provincetown Players and led a group of people that included Edna St. Vincent Millay, Louise Bryant, John Reed, Djuna Barnes, and others. He had been at a theatre in Chicago in 1913 that performed <i>The Playboy of the Western World</i>, barely escaping a riot due to the piece's controversial subject matter. He immediately knew he wanted to create an American theatre that had the same energy as that exciting performance.</div><div><br /></div><div>After marrying the writer Susan Glaspell, Cook put his ambitions into action, starting the Players in 1915. The first plays they produced were Neith Boyce's <i>Constancy</i> and <i>Suppressed Desire</i> by Glaspell and Cook, both presented at a vacation house in Provincetown, Massachusetts with sets designed by Robert Edmond Jones.</div><div><br /></div><div>The performance was so popular, that the plays were staged again at a wharf, and two more plays were done that summer. Over the following year, the participants drummed up interest in Greenwich Village where they lived. The next year, a whole slew of artists vacationed in Provincetown, including O'Neill. At the wharf that summer, O'Neill's play <i>The Moon of the Caribbees</i> was performed for the first time. Other plays by O'Neill followed, including <i>Bound East for Cardiff</i> and <i>Thirst</i>.</div><div><br /></div><div>In 1916, the group decided to produce a season in New York City as well. They converted the first floor of a brownstone into a very small theatre with extremely uncomfortable benches for seating. The stage was only 10 feet by 14 feet, but it played host to some of the great plays of the early American theatre.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Provincetown Players' first full-length play was Cook's <i>The Athenian Women</i>, inspired by Aristophanes' <a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2023/04/old-comedy.html" target="_blank">old comedy</a> <i>Lysistrata</i>. The play premiered on March 1, 1918, with a full 33 people packed onto the tiny stage in Greenwich Village. Eventually, the company moved into a larger space, an old stable that had recently been used for bottling wine.</div><div><br /></div><div>On November 22nd, 1918, the new theatre opened, only days after the Armistice that ended World War I. It was here that the company premiered such break-through plays as Millay's <i>Aria da Capo</i> and O'Neill's <i>The Emperor Jones</i>.</div><div><br /></div><div>By 1922, the company had premiered nearly a hundred new American plays and opened new opportunities for African Americans on stage. While short lived, it had a permanent impact on the American stage. </div>James Armstrong, Playwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07007390197279245395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7693302489402178925.post-85630743132949463092024-02-27T17:34:00.000-08:002024-02-27T17:34:22.122-08:00The Forces of DestinyLast night I saw the premiere of the <a href="https://www.metopera.org/" target="_blank">Metropolitan Opera</a>'s new production of <i>La Forza del Destino</i> by Giuseppi Verdi.<div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2esqxmfdLG4IWeAKTar4SkNG6To5fS2z4-SaIJ6UXBgXUZrlWc6n0HN5BkYJeGdsmb8fIEyzElMjaychZ7CdIlOrxbsJS0mxOAf4ADVj58zm9AzNMNEVqFtFwBFWwzE4IN7tkeWsQzNg-Z5mJZvWj0xFV9zBT3j58pKh2aiBJanG0C5U3VpLMJW-ilPU/s4032/Met.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="2268" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2esqxmfdLG4IWeAKTar4SkNG6To5fS2z4-SaIJ6UXBgXUZrlWc6n0HN5BkYJeGdsmb8fIEyzElMjaychZ7CdIlOrxbsJS0mxOAf4ADVj58zm9AzNMNEVqFtFwBFWwzE4IN7tkeWsQzNg-Z5mJZvWj0xFV9zBT3j58pKh2aiBJanG0C5U3VpLMJW-ilPU/s320/Met.jpeg" width="180" /></a></div>The opera has a reputation for being unlucky at the Met, given that the baritone Leonard Warren died on stage while performing it in 1960. No such disasters occurred last night, and the audience particularly cheered soprano Lise Davidsen, who played the heroine Leonora.</div><div><br /></div><div>Though the role of the young gypsy Preziosilla (who in this contemporary-set production, is simply an entertainer) might not be as coveted as that of Leonora, it still gives performers a chance to shine. In this production, it was played by a singer making her Met debut, Judit Kutasi. Hopefully she'll be returning to the Met frequently in the future.</div><div><br /></div><div>Verdi and librettist Francesco Maria Piave based the opera on a Spanish play by Ángel de Saavedra called <i>Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino</i>. The 1835 drama was important for bringing <a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2015/10/romanticism-its-all-in-name.html" target="_blank">Romanticism</a> (a bit belatedly) to the Spanish stage. The opera also adds a scene with a pedlar selling goods to soldiers, based on Friedrich Schiller's drama <i>Wallenstein's Camp</i>.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Met utilized a modern-looking setting, which aided by massive projections, seemed to me to echo the war in Ukraine. The characters are battered about by war and fate, caught up in forces of destiny they cannot control. In the end, Christian forgiveness seems to be the only way out of the cycles of vengeance portrayed in the opera.</div><div><br /></div><div>This production is playing until March 29th. If you're a fan of opera in the grand manner (and at four acts, it's not exactly short), I heartily recommend it.</div>James Armstrong, Playwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07007390197279245395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7693302489402178925.post-31239860565437626562024-02-21T19:04:00.000-08:002024-02-21T19:04:39.301-08:00Illustrations of Toy TheatresThe <a href="https://www.str.org.uk/" target="_blank">Society for Theatre Research</a> sponsored a lecture today by Alan Powers on British toy theatres, and fortunately they also streamed it online, which meant that I was able to watch.<div><br /></div><div>Powers is the Chair of the Pollock’s Toy Theatre Trust, which has issued reprints of classic toy theaters, including one of <i><a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2019/02/oliver-twist-for-toy-theatre.html" target="_blank">Oliver Twist</a></i>. He discussed his long association with the trust and the role of Benjamin Pollock in the revival of toy theatre during the 20th century. </div><div><br /></div><div>British toy theatres had their heyday during the Regency period, but they tend not to show up in illustrations until a bit later. One of the earliest depictions of a toy theatre in action comes from <i>The Poetical Present</i> published by William Cole in 1829.</div><div><br /></div><div>More famous, however, are the illustration's from John Leech's picture book <i>Young Troublesome, or Master Jacky's Holiday</i>, published in 1845. In one double illustration, Leech shows a toy theatre being presented to a boy, and then adults and children alike preparing for a toy production of <i><a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2016/06/isaac-pocock.html" target="_blank">The Miller and His Men</a></i>.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNOYXc8W6mfOJEMK4KCcNfs_LQH7L2I5R2YjY_uzaR2lPVDuA2kiippJhKvJhxg1xg1_F0JeYCvYrLNkeU9TPhR7dDWBtdu9j7WdzmDI34QecJcaSr-TFIWY9_iHkOvplU2T5-9rpo-kro8Ne8JYkzTtr5EF2AQIDShkldKTYnzHvU5uRSk8i8lqKh134/s1088/Screenshot%202024-02-21%20at%209.00.54%20PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="716" data-original-width="1088" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNOYXc8W6mfOJEMK4KCcNfs_LQH7L2I5R2YjY_uzaR2lPVDuA2kiippJhKvJhxg1xg1_F0JeYCvYrLNkeU9TPhR7dDWBtdu9j7WdzmDI34QecJcaSr-TFIWY9_iHkOvplU2T5-9rpo-kro8Ne8JYkzTtr5EF2AQIDShkldKTYnzHvU5uRSk8i8lqKh134/w400-h264/Screenshot%202024-02-21%20at%209.00.54%20PM.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div>A later illustration shows the climactic ending of that performance, which appears to disturb the whole household. <i>The Miller and His Men</i>, which was the most popular play by far for toy theatres, ended with the mill exploding on stage. In the illustration, the proprietors of the toy theatre pull out all of the stops to make the explosion as realistic as possible.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNLxh54MTnZMBeL3Se0CwDNTytk3jDhjaOXoB3FUShK56PUTy8sMWoA1t6riA_sgQ5JNHb9Hgk450Cf9Txqdzw45YIlmpFmxGFqfzpzW_umnpNKeofzhCvywu6OKnSOwXLsIiIW8p3NXXUNpsos6zfF7GUGe5y7b6oRARZIWFr4D_DR-a_lYy9lWXBk8g/s1152/Screenshot%202024-02-21%20at%209.05.23%20PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="742" data-original-width="1152" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNLxh54MTnZMBeL3Se0CwDNTytk3jDhjaOXoB3FUShK56PUTy8sMWoA1t6riA_sgQ5JNHb9Hgk450Cf9Txqdzw45YIlmpFmxGFqfzpzW_umnpNKeofzhCvywu6OKnSOwXLsIiIW8p3NXXUNpsos6zfF7GUGe5y7b6oRARZIWFr4D_DR-a_lYy9lWXBk8g/w400-h258/Screenshot%202024-02-21%20at%209.05.23%20PM.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div>By the 1850s, however, the toy theatre trade had run into difficulties, and the art form declined over the later Victorian era. However, there was renewed interest in the 20th century. Gordon Craig published an article about toy theatres in 1912 in his magazine <i>The Mask</i>. Pollock placed a copy of that magazine in the window of his shop, where he sold toy theatres during their revival prior to the Great Depression and World War II.</div><div><br /></div><div>Since the war, there have been efforts to bring the art form back, but it's been an uphill battle. Still, it's nice to see people like Powers bringing attention to these wonderful relics of the past.</div>James Armstrong, Playwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07007390197279245395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7693302489402178925.post-22027941647026898302024-02-18T20:36:00.000-08:002024-02-18T20:36:25.995-08:00In Dahomey<div style="text-align: left;">I just got back from <a href="https://54below.org/" target="_blank">54 Below</a>, the classic cabaret spot that tonight was presenting songs from the legendary 1903 musical <i>In Dahomey</i>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhRmwi7JLTzRUWd7mT_-i3P_mo_k1vUtMw01UqlnPezcl6k0gCRMUKtKUrI4qTpGMIG7rpsgee4MYtCDonMqx8WSbRX8Oyn7QiRbeTemNavpmj-9OE0siXLboUnhN3ciZ5oYtXdoiN7LczerFGN665L_ooh-3QCWZFy0ypa2Dh7vO0oirhouBptRVz4SA/s1024/In_Dahomey_Original_Program.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="431" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhRmwi7JLTzRUWd7mT_-i3P_mo_k1vUtMw01UqlnPezcl6k0gCRMUKtKUrI4qTpGMIG7rpsgee4MYtCDonMqx8WSbRX8Oyn7QiRbeTemNavpmj-9OE0siXLboUnhN3ciZ5oYtXdoiN7LczerFGN665L_ooh-3QCWZFy0ypa2Dh7vO0oirhouBptRVz4SA/s320/In_Dahomey_Original_Program.jpeg" width="135" /></a></div>The first full-length musical both written and performed by African Americans on Broadway, <i>In Dahomey</i> provided a star vehicle for comedians George Walker and Bert Williams. It also introduced a number of songs that became hits. As the play originally opened on February 18, 1903, tonight was the 121st anniversary of its premiere.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.caseengaines.com/" target="_blank">Caseen Gaines</a> and <a href="https://www.pierlamia.com/" target="_blank">Pier Lamia Porter</a> produced the evening, with musical director Gary Mitchell, Jr. leading a band that played its Ragtime-infused music. This included the song "The Czar" sung by James Jackson, Jr. The number was originally sung by Walker's character about being an important figure in Black society, a major theme in the musical.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Other numbers included the love song "Molly Green," the satirical "Leader of the Colored Aristocracy," and the rousing "On Broadway in Dahomey Bye and Bye." Toward the end, the cast sang "Emancipation Day," with lyrics by the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar and music by Will Marion Cook, who had studied with the composer Antonín Dvořák. Yes, this was a show that had some heavy hitters involved in its genesis!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I think my favorite song, though, was "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9sEEIcPdXk" target="_blank">I Wants to Be a Actor Lady</a>," which was originally sung in the show by Aida Overton Walker (wife of George Walker and the reputed 'Queen of Cakewalk'). It was a pre-existing song by Harry von Tilzer that got added to the show, but it was beautifully sung tonight by Kimberly Marable, who was seen most recently on Broadway as Velma Kelly in <i>Chicago</i>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>In Dahomey</i> achieved moderate success when it originally opened on Broadway, but then transferred to London, where the show became an unqualified hit. There was even a command performance for the Prince of Wales in honor of his son's birthday!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Many thanks to all of the artists involved tonight in bringing this music back to life for contemporary audiences.</div>James Armstrong, Playwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07007390197279245395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7693302489402178925.post-65454371827367870842024-02-11T06:58:00.000-08:002024-02-11T06:58:46.536-08:00The Good Soldier Švejk<div style="text-align: left;">It was a little over 100 years ago that the Czech writer Jaroslav Hašek died, leaving his satirical novel <i>The Good Soldier Švejk</i> unfinished, and providing theatre artists with the raw material for some of the most influential stage adaptations of the 20th century.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Director Erwin Piscator famously brought the novel to the stage as a piece of <a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2013/07/epic-theatre.html" target="_blank">epic theatre</a> in the 1920s, collaborating on the script with Max Brod, Hans Reimann, Erwin Piscator, Felix Gasbarra, and Bertolt Brecht. <i>Švejk</i> later became the inspiration for the 1936 musical <i><a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2023/05/johnny-johnson.html" target="_blank">Johnny Johnson</a></i> by Kurt Weill and Paul Green.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The story follows Josef Švejk, a muddle-headed man who volunteers to fight for the Austro-Hungarian Empire after the breakout of the First World War. Authorities aren't sure if he belongs in the army or a mental institution. Eventually, however, he is shipped off to the front, but after he misses his train, he decides to walk there... only in the wrong direction.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Last night, I saw a puppet adaptation of the novel performed by the <a href="https://czechmarionettes.org/index.html" target="_blank">Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre</a>. In this adaptation by Vít Horejš, different performers take on the role of Švejk in turn, as the Švejk puppet is passed from one person to another. While this might keep audience members from identifying with the protagonist, it also prevents them from getting bored with any one actor, as Švejk's voice changes periodically throughout the performance.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">If you want to see the production, it's running until February 18th at <a href="https://theaterforthenewcity.net/" target="_blank">Theater for the New City</a>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg46KOoZ0RomUIhwfWVM2mpX8nn4lxwlnP9wPhprAAfUdb5v_73oMvMwHXxBZ6ceiFZzNtI9cTvL84MRVB2_dEy43IFCTN-YO9ju0Ng2pqYR5QRc2Yz4y6eYTjR-7F6acjvkEU2nmbJzKmIfjLP96jY3JvE5bTeeeNchiAIUj4z6RcxIIlcbg6rt-cklVM/s768/The-Good-Soldier-Svejk.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="768" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg46KOoZ0RomUIhwfWVM2mpX8nn4lxwlnP9wPhprAAfUdb5v_73oMvMwHXxBZ6ceiFZzNtI9cTvL84MRVB2_dEy43IFCTN-YO9ju0Ng2pqYR5QRc2Yz4y6eYTjR-7F6acjvkEU2nmbJzKmIfjLP96jY3JvE5bTeeeNchiAIUj4z6RcxIIlcbg6rt-cklVM/w400-h300/The-Good-Soldier-Svejk.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>James Armstrong, Playwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07007390197279245395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7693302489402178925.post-1907285012635291482024-02-08T16:44:00.000-08:002024-02-08T16:44:29.625-08:00Reviewed in COLERIDGE BULLETINNoted scholar Julie Carlson has reviewed my new book <i><a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/p/romantic-actors-romantic-dramas.html" target="_blank">Romantic Actors, Romantic Dramas: British Tragedy on the Regency Stage</a></i> in the latest issue of <i>The Coleridge Bulletin</i>.<div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSibJhDJrfqXdOivvgi4MUJOTIxqLXMkH8b-J_PTKKKZ7tZdMK81nWpZ_jNsroQIE4w7JkaPcLjESExr_qFGArqbAh7GD3Tkt1hI7xQ8crUCHAyphGz3UtdiZmpv9zCzySmXYB1RS04Pk6F-tw0o9SazXsE8a1RH5yYduBNN5pnctNmjiWGVaD6xOoz10/s3357/Coleridge.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3357" data-original-width="2205" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSibJhDJrfqXdOivvgi4MUJOTIxqLXMkH8b-J_PTKKKZ7tZdMK81nWpZ_jNsroQIE4w7JkaPcLjESExr_qFGArqbAh7GD3Tkt1hI7xQ8crUCHAyphGz3UtdiZmpv9zCzySmXYB1RS04Pk6F-tw0o9SazXsE8a1RH5yYduBNN5pnctNmjiWGVaD6xOoz10/s320/Coleridge.jpeg" width="210" /></a></div>The journal is published by <a href="https://www.friendsofcoleridge.com/" target="_blank">The Friends of Coleridge</a>, which celebrates the life and work of the poet and dramatist Samuel Taylor Coleridge, author of the tragedy <i>Remorse</i>, among other works. My book contains a chapter on <i>Remorse</i>, which made it an apt piece to be reviewed in the journal.</div><div><br /></div><div>Carlson is a major figure in the study of <a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2016/06/british-romanticism.html" target="_blank">British Romanticism</a>, and is perhaps best known for her 1994 book <i>In the Theatre of Romanticism: Coleridge, Nationalism, Women</i>. I was thrilled to find she's reviewed my own book, noting that it offers a "bold corrective" to those who resist acknowledging Coleridge's standing as a practical playwright.</div><div><br /></div><div>My book emphasizes the roles of actors in shaping dramas during the Regency period in Britain. In the case of <i>Remorse</i>, the magnificent <a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2014/11/poor-julia-glover.html">Julia Glover</a> played a crucial role in the play's success. Though Glover is not as well known as other actors I examine in the book--including Sarah Siddons, Edmund Kean, and Eliza O'Neill--she helped to make <i>Remorse</i> a rousing success on stage.</div><div><br /></div><div>As Carlson notes in her review, during the rehearsal process Coleridge exhibited a "new receptiveness to the revolutionary power of women and the strength of their influence." This is no doubt attributable at least in part to Glover, who has been sadly neglected by historians of the theatre.</div><div><br /></div><div>I hope other publications review the book with the sensitivity and insight Carlson displayed.</div>James Armstrong, Playwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07007390197279245395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7693302489402178925.post-27647522870859763262024-02-02T08:06:00.000-08:002024-02-02T08:06:48.084-08:00John Bull's Other Island<div style="text-align: left;">Last night, I took part in a spirited public discussion of Bernard Shaw's play <i>John Bull's Other Island</i> sponsored by the <a href="https://www.yeatssociety.nyc/" target="_blank">W.B. Yeats Society of New York</a> and hosted by <a href="https://gingoldgroup.org/" target="_blank">Gingold Theatrical Group</a>.<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">William Butler Yeats commissioned Shaw to write the play for the group that eventually became the <a href="https://www.abbeytheatre.ie/" target="_blank">Abbey Theatre</a> in Dublin. Plays by Yeats and Shaw had previously been staged together at the Avenue Theatre in London, when Yeats's <i>The Land of Heart's Desire</i> was performed as a short curtain raiser before the premiere of Shaw's <i><a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2023/11/arms-and-man.html" target="_blank">Arms and the Man</a></i>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The stipulation was that the play should have an Irish theme, and Shaw at first struggled to write it. In a letter to <a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2020/02/lady-gregory.html" target="_blank">Lady Gregory</a>, one of Yeats's artistic partners in founding the Abbey Theatre, Shaw wrote in June of 1904 that he had "Not a word of the play yet on paper" but he was "Seething in the brain." The play he eventually came up with had four acts and six different scenes, which would have undoubtedly been a challenge for the small company just trying to start out in the world.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">At the end of August, Shaw wrote to Yeats to see if the new theatre might have "a hydraulic bridge" to accomplish the two scene changes that occurred in the middle of acts. Eventually he did finish the play, but it proved to be too long and difficult to stage for the company. The "inevitable cutting" Yeats wrote back, would adversely affect the "seriousness" of the play. Ultimately, the theatre allowed Shaw to look for another home for the piece.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This was not difficult, as Shaw was a successful playwright by 1904, and <i>John Bull's Other Island</i> was premiered instead by the <a href="https://royalcourttheatre.com/" target="_blank">Royal Court Theatre</a> in London, with the actor <a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2015/01/harley-granville-barker.html" target="_blank">Harley Granville Barker</a> playing the defrocked priest Peter Keegan.</div>James Armstrong, Playwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07007390197279245395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7693302489402178925.post-53358111590736906412024-01-26T20:46:00.000-08:002024-01-26T20:46:45.103-08:00Wedding Night ZoomMy short play <i>Wedding Night</i>, which had a <a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2023/05/as-i-previously-announced-my-short-play.html" target="_blank">staged reading last year</a> at Ancostia Playhouse in Washington, D.C., will be having a Zoom reading by Tiger's Heart Players on Sunday, January 28th at 3pm.<div><br /></div><div>The play is loosely based on Luigi Pirandello’s short story “Prima notte,” and was recently <a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2023/12/wedding-night-published.html" target="_blank">published in PSA</a>, the journal of the Pirandello Society of America. I previously saw a reading of the play over Zoom by the 36th Street Writers Block.</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Wedding Night</i> is being presented alongside three other short plays: <i>Destination Funeral</i> by Peter Andrews, <i>Affair with a Fish</i> (Act III) by Wayne Paul Mattingly, and <i>The King Has No Pants On</i> by Susan Price Monnot.</div><div><br /></div><div>This will be my first time working with Tiger's Heart. Click <a href="https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84196922564?pwd=ZlJ3d0p2Y05WblZ0Q1MxTnYrSUE2Zz09" target="_blank">here</a> to access the reading on Zoom this Sunday. The meeting ID is 841 9692 2564. The passcode is 310747.</div>James Armstrong, Playwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07007390197279245395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7693302489402178925.post-7334155143484410072024-01-25T14:47:00.000-08:002024-01-25T14:47:33.242-08:00Iguana Night"I don't judge people, I draw them," says Hannah Jelkes in Tennessee Williams's play <i>The Night of the Iguana</i>. The dramatist might well have been speaking about himself. Williams rarely judged his characters, but he did exquisitely draw them for his audience.<div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw3DQXkRD_kV-RU-bm9116lkxtEiExLs-uU1JGmLIgEdyrLdUoHIc2cVM57qf9So9Q84RGZY1qKAm62fV4uP97w1qKVkuN6WrjomXNYnxSqUDrW88930NMYCbTY-5eddKr5hQim4IBn0RZQS-L4VYJHnSq2xTB8eqEcPgKw2q5RMu9Z3IAcfoUYFh9j7Q/s1859/20240125_173604.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1859" data-original-width="1446" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw3DQXkRD_kV-RU-bm9116lkxtEiExLs-uU1JGmLIgEdyrLdUoHIc2cVM57qf9So9Q84RGZY1qKAm62fV4uP97w1qKVkuN6WrjomXNYnxSqUDrW88930NMYCbTY-5eddKr5hQim4IBn0RZQS-L4VYJHnSq2xTB8eqEcPgKw2q5RMu9Z3IAcfoUYFh9j7Q/s320/20240125_173604.jpg" width="249" /></a></div>That's what we see on stage in the <a href="https://iguanaplaynyc.com/" target="_blank">Off-Broadway revival</a> of the play at the Pershing Square Signature Center. Directed by Emily Mann, the production brings together top-quality actors who embrace the characters they play in all their problematic excess.</div><div><br /></div><div>I saw the show last night, when the cast was led by Christopher Innvar as the Reverend T. Lawrence Shannon, a former Episcopal priest now leading tourists through some of the seedier locales in Mexico. Innvar would seem to be perfect casting for the role. He played Albany opposite John Lithgow in <i><a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2014/07/lear-in-park.html" target="_blank">King Lear</a></i>, and has performed the title character in Joanna Baillie's <i><a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2014/11/joanna-baillie-at-red-bull.html" target="_blank">De Monfort</a></i>, as well as more recently being Kurt, the odd man out in <i><a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2019/03/the-dance-of-death.html" target="_blank">Dance of Death</a></i> by August Strindberg. Is it any wonder Mann cast such a magnificent performer in the lead of this anticipated revival?</div><div><br /></div><div>Oh, wait. Innvar was the understudy! No matter. He nailed the character, and was particularly good in Shannon's scenes together with Judith Fellowes, the annoying matronly woman on the tour who has it out for Shannon, and with very good reason. Fellowes is unbearable, even though we know she's essentially in the right, and is played with priceless humor by Dee Pelletier, best known for her Broadway turns in the Tracy Letts dark comedies <i>The Minutes</i> and <i>August: Osage County</i>.</div><div><br /></div><div>Hold on, Pelletier was an understudy, too! Her performance was still wonderful, though, and she and Innvar held their own with the show's headliner who did make last night's performance, Daphne Rubin-Vega. Best known as the original Mimi in <i>Rent</i>, Rubin-Vega, can still display her posterior in tight pants without any complaints from the audience. That's good, since she plays Maxine Faulk, the recently widowed proprietor of the hotel where the tour group is staying. Maxine rolls out her sexual charm to welcome Shannon, and the biggest wonder of the play is how he can resist her.</div><div><br /></div><div>The answer would appear to be Hannah, the Nantucket spinster played by Jean Lichty, who seems to understand the kind of spiritual turmoil Shannon is going through in a way that Faulk cannot. Hannah is traveling with her grandfather (played by the legendary Austin Pendleton), barely scraping by through a combination of selling her artwork and showing off her grandfather as "the oldest living and practicing poet on earth."</div><div><br /></div><div>This motley assortment of oddballs is displayed with humanity, reminding us of the importance to not judge others for their weaknesses. That's a lesson that should be learned by the German couple staying at the hotel, who represent the dark cloud of fascism that was rolling in during the summer of 1940, when the play is set.</div><div><br /></div><div>This splendid revival is only playing until February 25, so see it while you still can.</div>James Armstrong, Playwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07007390197279245395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7693302489402178925.post-72854537029245821052024-01-20T20:47:00.000-08:002024-01-20T20:47:06.679-08:00Irish Poetic Drama<div style="text-align: left;">Prior to the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, Ireland did not have a recognized independent state, but even before the country was recognized as a nation, activists strove to create a national Irish theatre.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />In 1897 a trio of artists, <a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2020/02/lady-gregory.html" target="_blank">Isabella Augusta Gregory</a>, <a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-dramatic-imagination-of-william.html" target="_blank">William Butler Yeats</a>, and Edward Martyn, published a manifesto calling for an Irish literary theatre that could present high-quality drama on Irish themes. The three teamed up with the writer George Moore to officially establish the Irish Literary Theatre in 1899, renting concert rooms to put on Yeats's controversial verse drama <i>The Countess Cathleen</i>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />From the beginning, the Irish Literary Theatre was involved in controversy. A critic circulated a pamphlet condemning <i>The Countess Cathleen</i>, and the highest-ranking catholic prelate in Ireland wrote to newspapers attacking the play. Many Irish nationalists supported the piece, however, and so many supporters and detractors showed up on opening night that the police were called in as well, just in case there was trouble.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj_ahHEuMLJkL93P_w3lG3ZjeeK3XVR-TwnYuVTn6lbif_lI0OpCq7lwN-PgjS8UxIKZ_FySn4uMipaGW3xVqfKpWhHfZ8Cjxk6A6Hz0GcSGpGLBlKTUkDwSIJELmi1Gbk2m21DTvT9xiYrpX8HDDSzsjuchwG5-y-Pi4H8YJNycJ_2-Mh0yybETfyPFE/s518/Cathleen_Ni_Houlihan.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="518" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj_ahHEuMLJkL93P_w3lG3ZjeeK3XVR-TwnYuVTn6lbif_lI0OpCq7lwN-PgjS8UxIKZ_FySn4uMipaGW3xVqfKpWhHfZ8Cjxk6A6Hz0GcSGpGLBlKTUkDwSIJELmi1Gbk2m21DTvT9xiYrpX8HDDSzsjuchwG5-y-Pi4H8YJNycJ_2-Mh0yybETfyPFE/s320/Cathleen_Ni_Houlihan.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>The Irish Literary Theatre produced a play co-written by Yeats and Moore, <i>Diarmuid and Grania</i>, and later regrouped under the name of W.G. Fay's Irish National Dramatic Company. This theatre presented <i>Cathleen Ni Houlihan</i>, another controversial play by Yeats in which he credited Gregory as a collaborator. Though at first glance the play appears to be naturalistic, its title character personifies Ireland itself, first as an old, worn-out woman, and then as a young girl who walks like a queen.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />The following year, the company reformed again with funding from the theatre manager Annie Horniman, establishing what came to be known as the <a href="https://www.abbeytheatre.ie/" target="_blank">Abbey Theatre</a>. In addition to reviving <i>Cathleen Ni Houlihan</i>, the Abbey premiered another Yeats play, <i>On Baile's Strand</i>, along with a play by Gregory, <i>Spreading the News</i>, and a new play called <i>In the Shadow of the Glen</i> by a previously unknown writer named <a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2022/04/irish-one-acts.html" target="_blank">John Millington Synge</a>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Synge's plays became an important if controversial part of the Abbey's repertoire. His one-act drama <i>Riders to the Sea</i> depicted the lives of poor fishing families in the west of Ireland, and his full-length comedy <i>The Playboy of the Western World</i> offended so many people that the audience rioted when the Abbey premiered it in 1907. Tragically, Synge died two years later, his life cut short at the age of 37.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />After Ireland gained independence, the nation fell into a civil war between rival factions. The new nation's turbulent history was recorded in the plays of Sean O'Casey, whose trilogy of plays set in Dublin, <i>The Shadow of a Gunman</i>, <i><a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2019/03/juno-and-paycock.html" target="_blank">Juno and the Paycock</a></i>, and <i>The Plough and the Stars</i>, recount political events with both humor and pathos.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">These plays retain much of the poetic lyricism of Gregory, Yeats, and Synge. Yeats continued to write verse drama, and finished his last plays, <i>The Herne's Egg</i>, <i>Purgatory</i>, and <i>The Death of Cuchulain</i>, shortly before he died in 1939.</div>James Armstrong, Playwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07007390197279245395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7693302489402178925.post-80581950184714502452024-01-19T18:18:00.000-08:002024-01-19T18:18:44.886-08:00Rambling the Streets with Aphra Behn<div style="text-align: left;">I recently received the new issue of <i>Theatre Notebook</i>, which includes an article by Kate Aughterson on street scenography in Aphra Behn's play <i><a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2020/08/verse-in-rover.html" target="_blank">The Rover</a></i>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">According to Aughterson, when Hellena says in the first scene, "let's ramble," there is an implied sexual connotation for audiences of <a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2017/08/notes-on-restoration-drama.html" target="_blank">Restoration drama</a>. Public streets could be places for licentiousness, and women walking the streets publicly might be seen as willing prey for men.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">However, Aughterson argues that the play shows female characters using what the philosopher <a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2013/05/meditations-on-de-certeau.html" target="_blank">Michel de Certeau</a> referred to as "tactics" that push back against the social standards the general culture imposes on individuals. While streets were often considered male spaces, the women in <i>The Rover</i> sometimes assert themselves there, frequently with the aid of masks or disguises.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Half of the scenes in <i>The Rover</i>, 8 out of 16, take place on the street. This is more than any other Behn play, though her 1681 sequel to the original play comes close with 5 out of 12 scenes taking place on the street. Some scenes even specify a particular type of street scenography, calling for a "long street" which might have used all of the theatre's side shutters, each set of shutters partially open with a different piece of painted scenery, allowing for a sense of perspective.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The famous Molo in Naples, which juts out into the harbor, provides the location of an important scene in Act 4, and reputedly Behn had a special backdrop painted just for this scene. This is the scene with the play's famous duel, which stages a distinctly masculine action, but women are present in the scene as well. At the end Angellica even plots her revenge on Willmore, declaring: "Then since I am not fit to belov’d, / I am resolv’d to think on a revenge / On him that sooth’d me thus to my undoing."</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5mh6D1RBBupHpy87Ncvd2UOeOOKojCKo7Ys0hxAx14YXGGgfdw_ZH1PuAwhYNO6Mw79d6_qjRSd6dHEiFqdZdmoQAvRYFBIBuq6gDTHzKBZoddlZiXaIImikc2pGEQaaF9Z9gp4EdD_9b3Ce-fIxKYlfiCBSod7eTrgUS-91dHFpB5jXWhBPtO19VFLU/s205/Screen%20Shot%202024-01-19%20at%209.03.02%20PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="205" data-original-width="205" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5mh6D1RBBupHpy87Ncvd2UOeOOKojCKo7Ys0hxAx14YXGGgfdw_ZH1PuAwhYNO6Mw79d6_qjRSd6dHEiFqdZdmoQAvRYFBIBuq6gDTHzKBZoddlZiXaIImikc2pGEQaaF9Z9gp4EdD_9b3Ce-fIxKYlfiCBSod7eTrgUS-91dHFpB5jXWhBPtO19VFLU/s1600/Screen%20Shot%202024-01-19%20at%209.03.02%20PM.png" width="205" /></a></div>Ultimately, the streets of Naples in <i>The Rover</i> are male-dominated, and they are a risky place for women to be, but Aughterson shows how the women in the play assert their own agency and claim a place in the streets for themselves.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">In any case, it's good to see such interesting research being done on Behn. She'd been garnering a lot of attention lately, and there are even plans to erect a <a href="https://www.aisforaphra.org/the-statue" target="_blank">statue</a> of her in her hometown of Canterbury, England. That would be nice to see!</div>James Armstrong, Playwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07007390197279245395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7693302489402178925.post-29150704281279458462024-01-07T21:50:00.000-08:002024-01-07T21:50:22.964-08:00MLA in PhiladelphiaSunday was the last day of the Modern Language Association's annual convention, held this year in Philadelphia. I delivered a paper on <a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2015/06/byrons-screen.html" target="_blank">Lord Byron</a> and modern drama, and also presided at a session on Charles Dickens and D.H. Lawrence.<div><br /></div><div>The first session I attended was on Byron's legacy. Sadly, none of the panelists talked much about Byron's dramas, but Ghislaine Gaye McDayter gave an interesting talk on his poem "The Waltz" and Matt Sandler discussed the influence of "She Walks in Beauty" on the poem "Harlem Shadows" by Claude McKay.</div><div><br /></div><div>Later in the afternoon, I went to a session on <a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2023/03/reviewing-eugene-oneill.html" target="_blank">Eugene O'Neill</a>, so there was much more discussion of drama. Bess Rowen spoke, comparing the stage directions in O'Neill's <i>The Emperor Jones</i> with those in Marita Bonner's <i>The Purple Flower</i>. Next, Nicole Tabor made some interesting comments on the representation of Standard Oil in <i>A Moon for the Misbegotten</i>. Reagan Venturi gave a comparison between O'Neill's <i>Long Day's Journey Into Night</i> and the Tracy Letts play <i>August: Osage County</i>. The last speaker, Donald Gagnon, compared O'Neill with August Wilson.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF9n7piKzsEMawm3vj-2H8QTCV6EOXh_3HHf5dsWfETSsb8kgcPFECHBRh-dALh5KEDguSRDdInuiPl55X4oA8XBTTPZbTLL5lkMWyttYHOMeRS2z2v0QyXWLBUo6QWTTE1ii-tdpKd59ZKz__tT8EZEwP7baHoFeYPOoQ7VLGlcftEt2myBf7vTG78c8/s415/ArcadiaPoster.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="415" data-original-width="191" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF9n7piKzsEMawm3vj-2H8QTCV6EOXh_3HHf5dsWfETSsb8kgcPFECHBRh-dALh5KEDguSRDdInuiPl55X4oA8XBTTPZbTLL5lkMWyttYHOMeRS2z2v0QyXWLBUo6QWTTE1ii-tdpKd59ZKz__tT8EZEwP7baHoFeYPOoQ7VLGlcftEt2myBf7vTG78c8/s320/ArcadiaPoster.jpeg" width="147" /></a></div>Friday morning, I delivered my paper, beginning with an overview of Byron's reception during the Victorian era, and then looking at his impact on 20th- and 21st-century dramatists. O'Neill, of course, was one of the playwrights to be strongly impacted by Byron, and his play <i><a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2022/02/a-touch-of-poet.html" target="_blank">A Touch of the Poet</a></i> quotes Byron numerous times. Romulus Linney put Byron on stage as the opium-induced hallucination of his daughter in <i>Childe Byron</i>, and Howard Brenton portrayed him with other Romantics in <i>Bloody Poetry</i>. Byron appears as an off-stage character in Tom Stoppard's play <i>Arcadia</i>, and more recently, he provided the namesake of Johnny "Rooster" Byron in Jez Butterworth's <i><a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2023/08/jerusalem.html" target="_blank">Jerusalem</a></i>.</div><div><br /></div><div>After my session, I was able to catch a panel on "Disabling Environments of the Romantic Era." Unfortunately, there wasn't much talk about Romantic drama, but Diana Little made some nice observations on the sonnets of Charlotte Smith, and Jane Kim linked the Korean poet Yun Dong-Ju with Mary Shelley's novel <i><a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2018/10/frankenstein.html" target="_blank">Frankenstein</a></i>. Next, I went to a session on Victorian gaslighting inspired by Patrick Hamilton's play <i>Gaslight</i>. After that, I attended an interesting panel on Pan-European Romanticism, which included Jonathan Gross talking about <a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2021/09/pushkin.html" target="_blank">Alexander Pushkin</a>, Martin Prochazka discussing the Czech poet K.H. Macha, Andra Bailard comparing Byron and George Sand, and and Omar Miranda speaking on <a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-evolution-of-madame-de-stael.html" target="_blank">Madame de Staël</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>While Dickens and Lawrence both wrote plays, there wasn't much talk about their dramas at the convention. Still, I very much enjoyed a panel on Lawrence and Affect sponsored by the D.H. Lawrence Society of North America. That organization co-sponsored with the Dickens Society the panel I presided at on Saturday morning. Bridget Chalk and Tara Moore both gave excellent papers. Unfortunately, Holly Laird was ill and wasn't able to come, but I read her abstract for her, along with Lawrence's poem "Dreams Old" which mentions characters from <i>David Copperfield</i>.</div><div><br /></div><div>It's been a while since <a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2018/01/mla-has-begun.html" target="_blank">I last attended the MLA convention</a>, but I enjoyed seeing people I knew as well as meeting new folks.</div>James Armstrong, Playwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07007390197279245395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7693302489402178925.post-12390496315449801412023-12-31T12:09:00.000-08:002023-12-31T12:09:33.498-08:00Top Plays of 2023<div style="text-align: left;">Once again, I'm compiling a list of the top ten plays I saw in New York City that opened in 2023.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />Last year, the musical <i><a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2022/04/the-first-time-i-tried-to-see-paradise.html" target="_blank">Paradise Square</a> </i>topped <a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2022/12/best-plays-of-2022.html" target="_blank">my list</a>, though critics were mixed in their reviews of the show, and it ended up closing at a financial loss.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Alas, I can't claim that this is the year theatre came back in New York, but a number of good shows did open in 2023, a couple of which are still running, so see them while you can!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #ffa400;">10. <a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2023/01/the-smuggler.html" target="_blank"><i>The Smuggler</i></a> -</span></b> Irish Rep had an ambitious season this year, but the best thing I saw there was a very small show, Ronán Noone's one-man verse drama about a Massachusetts bar tender who ends up getting involved in human trafficking.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #ffa400;">9. <a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2023/07/the-school-for-scandal.html" target="_blank"><i>The School for Scandal</i></a> -</span></b> Hudson Classical Theatre Company continued its tradition this year of bringing solid productions of classical plays to the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument in Riverside Park. This year's staging of Richard Brinsley Sheridan's <i>The School for Scandal</i> brought together delightful acting with a creative costume design.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #ffa400;">8. <a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2023/11/a-mangled-mind.html" target="_blank"><i>The Mind Mangler</i></a> -</span></b> This year the team that brought us <i>The Play That Goes Wrong</i> opened a new show in their franchise featuring Henry Lewis as an inept mentalist. The show is funny, which I expected, but also successfully pulls off a couple of brilliant magic tricks, which I wasn't expecting. Best of all, though, it has a tremendous heart that is no illusion at all. (<a href="https://mindmanglernyc.com/" target="_blank">Still playing!</a>)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #ffa400;">7. <i><a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2023/02/crumbs-from-pensacola.html" target="_blank">Crumbs from the Table of Joy</a></i> -</span></b> Keen Company's revival of Lynn Nottage's break-out play from 1995 was another unexpected delight, in part due to the performance of Shanel Bailey as Ernestine, a young woman in 1950s New York struggling to deal with changes both in the world and in her own family. Bailey definitely had a good year in 2023, as she appeared in another great revival on my list as well.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #ffa400;">6. <a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2023/05/knight-of-burning-pestle.html" target="_blank"><i>The Knight of the Burning Pestle</i></a> -</span></b> I directed this Jacobean classic when I was in college, so I knew I'd have to see a co-production by Red Bull and Fiasco Theater. Paco Tolson led the cast as a grocer's apprentice who becomes the titular Knight of the Burning Pestle. What made the piece a sheer joy, however, was the interaction of the ensemble, including Ben Steinfeld, Royer Bokus, and Teresa Avia Lim.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #ffa400;">5. <a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-end-of-world.html" target="_blank">Here We Are</a> -</span></b> Stephen Sondheim's collaboration with David Ives finally made it to the stage this year. Even with flawed direction, the piece soars with a cast that includes Jeremy Shamos, Amber Gray, Bobby Cannavale, Rachel Bay Jones, Steven Pasquale, Micaela Diamond, and David Hyde Pierce. Whether or not you've seen any of the surrealist films of Luis Buñuel that inspired the piece, you should be able to appreciate the play's existential musings on modern life. Hurry to <a href="https://www.theshed.org/program/301-here-we-are" target="_blank">see the show</a> before it closes on January 21st.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #ffa400;">4. <i><a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2023/11/arms-and-man.html" target="_blank">Arms and the Man</a></i> -</span></b> Shanel Bailey came back to Theatre Row this fall to appear as Raina in Gingold Theatrical Group's magnificent production of Shaw's anti-war classic <i>Arms and the Man</i>. Director David Staller brought together a wonderful cast that also included Keshav Moodliar, Ben Davis, Delphi Borich, Thomas Jay Ryan, Evan Zes, and Karen Ziemba. As someone who is a fan of toy theatres, I also loved the set designed by Lindsay G. Fuori to resemble a paper stage from the Victorian era. I'm looking forward to seeing what GTG does next in 2024!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #ffa400;">3. <i><a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2023/06/hamlet-in-park.html" target="_blank">Hamlet</a></i> -</span></b> The Public Theater chose Kenny Leon to direct the last production of Shakespeare in the Park before the Delacorte Theatre is shut down for renovations. Beowulf Boritt's set playfully echoed the one he previously designed for Leon's <i>Much Ado About Nothing</i>. The biggest joy, though, was seeing famed Shakespearean actor John Douglas Thompson play the most engrossing Claudius I've ever seen. Ato Blankson-Wood was able to hold his own as young Prince Hamlet, and the cast also included Lorraine Toussaint as Gertrude, Daniel Pearce as Polonius, and Solea Pfeiffer as Ophelia.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #ffa400;">2. <i><a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2023/08/immersive-gatsby.html" target="_blank">The Great Gatsby</a></i> -</span></b> The immersive production of <i>The Great Gatsby </i>was criminally underrated. The piece contained a couple of more traditional scenes, such as the tea Jay Gatsby prepared for Daisy, where the entire audience was assembled in one place. What was most interesting, though, was the way we were all divided into small groups to wander through side scenes, having interactions with various characters, sometimes with other audience members, and sometimes one-on-one. The live music was an added bonus. Sadly, the show closed in New York, but there's a chance it might come back, if not here, in another city.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #ffa400;">1. <i><a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2023/03/becomes-woman.html" target="_blank">Becomes a Woman</a></i> -</span></b> My top choice this year is likely to surprise a lot of people, but the Mint Theater Company performed an immense service in bringing Betty Smith's long forgotten play to the stage at last. Before Smith penned her 1943 novel <i>A Tree Grows in Brooklyn</i>, she wrote <i>Becomes a Woman</i>, but this was 1931, and no theatre wanted to touch a play with a feminist bent so far ahead of its time. In the Mint's long overdue production, Emma Pfitzer Price starred as Francie Nolan, a character whose name Smith later used as the heroine of her classic novel. Other strong performances were delivered by Jeb Brown, Peterson Townsend, Gina Daniels, Jason O'Connell, and Duane Boutté.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">So that's my list! I'm looking forward to more great theatre in 2024.</div>James Armstrong, Playwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07007390197279245395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7693302489402178925.post-39090517895867681952023-12-30T18:15:00.000-08:002023-12-30T18:15:25.864-08:00The End of the World<div style="text-align: left;">Whether or not the end of the world really does come in Stephen Sondheim and David Ives's musical <i>Here We Are</i>, a feeling of impending doom permeates the play, which is perhaps fitting since it was the last piece Sondheim worked on before he died.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Currently, the show is playing in an ambitious but imperfect production at The Shed, the ambitious but rather imperfect arts monstrosity erected at Hudson Yards, not far from the Vessel. (At least The Shed hasn't induced anyone to commit suicide... yet.)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It would be a shame to dwell on Joe Mantello's uneven direction of the piece, as the play itself really is quite good, and deserves to have a great future. Inspired by the films of surrealist director Luis Buñuel, <i>Here We Are</i> uses the dream-like qualities of surrealism to explore the unsettling nature of human existence.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">And what humans the play gives us! Plastic surgeon Paul Zimmer (played by Jeremy Shamos) and his wife Claudia (played by Amber Gray) arrive at the home of the wealthy and glamorous Leo and Marianne Brink (Bobby Cannavale and Rachel Bay Jones). They bring with them the flamboyant ambassador Raffael Santello Di Santicci (Steven Pasquale) and the gender-ambiguous radical Fritz (Micaela Diamond).</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Everyone is expecting brunch, but no brunch has been prepared. Fortunately, money is no object to this class of people, so they decide to go out for brunch, only to find a succession of absurd situations preventing them from eating. They encounter a variety of servants and waiters, all played by the hysterical Tracie Bennett and Denis O'Hare. They eventually make their way to Raffael's embassy, picking up along the way a Colonel (Francois Battiste), a Soldier (Jin Ha), and a Bishop (David Hyde Pierce).</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">While the first act of the play roughly mirrors Buñuel's 1972 film <i>The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie</i>, the second act is inspired by an earlier piece, <i>The Exterminating Angel</i>, which has also been made into an opera by composer Thomas Adès. I'm not familiar with Adès's music, but I am with that of Sondheim. This score is unmistakably his, particularly reminiscent of <i>Sunday in the Park with George</i>, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1985.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Unfortunately, this production pipes the music in from an orchestra playing offstage. The volume of the music coming through the speakers sometimes overwhelms the actors, which is surprising given how strong some of the singers are. Amber Gray has already made a name for herself with <i>Great Comet</i> and <i>Hadestown</i>, but future audiences will want to keep an ear out for the amazing voice of Jin Ha.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Here We Are</i> is only scheduled to run through January 21st, so see it while you can!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT1sNFoYV1l71Q45j_KQB9eLzg4EsjKtHWqnb9xTZiYvZvfwIcb8-gYAhHLHuwNhTagmC0pFb3F4g0WOX1fd5X90jWarixwENS0TkorsNtrS83Z7OSk37nJ6yPTMaSMFlCQyX-pVMkKS31apsY3KZHkylkhmnxR9DucMVVyLr6cFPuPOrQ9k0GHeRuhwQ/s3631/Shed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2092" data-original-width="3631" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT1sNFoYV1l71Q45j_KQB9eLzg4EsjKtHWqnb9xTZiYvZvfwIcb8-gYAhHLHuwNhTagmC0pFb3F4g0WOX1fd5X90jWarixwENS0TkorsNtrS83Z7OSk37nJ6yPTMaSMFlCQyX-pVMkKS31apsY3KZHkylkhmnxR9DucMVVyLr6cFPuPOrQ9k0GHeRuhwQ/w400-h230/Shed.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>James Armstrong, Playwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07007390197279245395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7693302489402178925.post-70120703700410392452023-12-29T20:49:00.000-08:002023-12-29T20:49:35.020-08:00Commedia at the Met<div style="text-align: left;">Yesterday, I was at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and I took photos of some of the ceramic figurines they have of characters from <a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2016/05/commedia-dellarte.html" target="_blank">commedia dell'arte</a>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-commedia-legacy.html" target="_blank">Commedia in the 18th century</a>, when the figurines were produced, had grown to be more refined than the rough-and-tumble improvisations that originated in Italy. It had also spread to France and later across Europe, which is why some of the porcelain miniatures were manufactured in Germany.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMlJ5voOBiqps0dSGdo8jEGyLAG3rhgnOrAli47NyKPEPf6NsEFCcOzJUx3d3RrtXRGb2ahxToxIlugqchW6xii50dLw07n5y4UhW8KYyEXgUBPABCqnNl1lorVsWRY-bDxLpe8KSAnkTk5Jg9W6kS08HbUlLJvuW0U9NFoKnN5SawBbu-JUZYq6ENCMM/s1697/Isabella.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1697" data-original-width="867" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMlJ5voOBiqps0dSGdo8jEGyLAG3rhgnOrAli47NyKPEPf6NsEFCcOzJUx3d3RrtXRGb2ahxToxIlugqchW6xii50dLw07n5y4UhW8KYyEXgUBPABCqnNl1lorVsWRY-bDxLpe8KSAnkTk5Jg9W6kS08HbUlLJvuW0U9NFoKnN5SawBbu-JUZYq6ENCMM/w163-h320/Isabella.jpg" width="163" /></a></div>One of the most famous stock characters in commedia, Isabella, was named for the actress who made the character type famous. Isabella Canali, whose married name was Andreini, helped lead the commedia troupe <i>I Gelosi</i> to become one of the most famous in the world in the 16th century. She frequently played sexy young widows who drove the plot by maneuvering to marry a young man she loved. Subsequent witty and wily heroines tended to bear the name Isabella, a lasting tribute to her talents.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Here's a photo I snapped of the Isabella figurine at the Met. It's accession number 1974.356.527 if you want to look it up on the Met's website, but unfortunately they just have a black-and-white image. Click on this one to enlarge it and get a sense of what the miniature looks like in full color. The violet tones make her costume stand out without being garish.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuNb4YcCRAZVhbJS3tcnbQHEIsRXUjnRYskj81HnKCPhzH7oPRADGkPiJ9SA04sNxoNoYFLYeBC7dxUzUqZT4xdj80y_5k84-oYqflAsou6BJdslLCK0f15LhcZCIu7EkiM3nvh4qxYVwuS6UG7zVRfNWhavO-U7oMV2rByTgXcVwkJsge6KpTq-UxQ-s/s1584/Harlequin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1584" data-original-width="714" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuNb4YcCRAZVhbJS3tcnbQHEIsRXUjnRYskj81HnKCPhzH7oPRADGkPiJ9SA04sNxoNoYFLYeBC7dxUzUqZT4xdj80y_5k84-oYqflAsou6BJdslLCK0f15LhcZCIu7EkiM3nvh4qxYVwuS6UG7zVRfNWhavO-U7oMV2rByTgXcVwkJsge6KpTq-UxQ-s/s320/Harlequin.jpg" width="144" /></a></div>Harlequin's costume, on the other hand, is just garish. Originally known as Arlecchino in Italy, Harlequin was the most famous of the zanni. These were servant characters who engaged in slapstick antics. In fact, Harlequin generally carried a literal slapstick, a wooden bat that would make a slapping sound when it stopped just short of hitting someone. This allowed the actors to perform violent physical comedy without actually hurting one another.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This figurine is one of several with the accession number 1974.356.526. Harlequin's tight-fitting suit was originally covered with patches, but gradually these transformed into multi-colored diamonds or triangles. He also wore a black mask, which was not originally intended to be a form of racial impersonation, but multiple paintings from the 18th century (when Black servants became more common in France) depict as Harlequin models who are clearly of African descent.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu5eedYsJp3kpXtH8_XgROsYCGiNpo4CMuCaMK9X39fAd8-FOPuGIP9SiwR0mIy9ykMSrOjzdEph2M9v_8J6kSIglAeEdXYCs8pIWxgYlwBsDcWoEePfImfhkm0w07y7U0QgAz007KLkOa300z3ut05wRqKGPlnwxNz6fj8NoDoJv_1Y50B79toAlnUjw/s1544/Colombina.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1544" data-original-width="793" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu5eedYsJp3kpXtH8_XgROsYCGiNpo4CMuCaMK9X39fAd8-FOPuGIP9SiwR0mIy9ykMSrOjzdEph2M9v_8J6kSIglAeEdXYCs8pIWxgYlwBsDcWoEePfImfhkm0w07y7U0QgAz007KLkOa300z3ut05wRqKGPlnwxNz6fj8NoDoJv_1Y50B79toAlnUjw/s320/Colombina.jpg" width="164" /></a></div>Frequently paired with Harlequin was a female servant named Colombina or Colombine. She would often wear a dress that had the same pattern as Harlequin's outfit, and she was sometimes known as Harlequina, which is what the Met has named this figurine, accession number 50.211.251.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Colombine was not the only female servant character, but she was the most popular one, exchanging witty barbs with Harlequin in a sassy and sexy manner. Other times, commedia plays would introduce a country girl named Franceschina, whose coarse manners offset the more refined attitude of Colombine. Both of them were allowed more liberties with their humor than the respectable Isabella.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Isabella, Harlequin, and Colombine were all sympathetic characters, but commedia also needed some good villains, or at least blocking characters to get in the way of the lovers.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR3PubXdVIC9Z0AEZqNkCXa2ozaU7pLxooqKhfn2QM0jOrBImksxGYgjtLMXqzctcSbbSR6ubwNMSNo0FuSXCowC4mk7ZTQBsLyKCZFqk28NW2ZjT5OxLWw4LnIiNoXtfN8YxcvEHkccE__RdrcmW1XpFSimqD87rP3-P7nc4-ZaMWqhdAaSejR2vqna8/s983/Pantaloon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="983" data-original-width="602" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR3PubXdVIC9Z0AEZqNkCXa2ozaU7pLxooqKhfn2QM0jOrBImksxGYgjtLMXqzctcSbbSR6ubwNMSNo0FuSXCowC4mk7ZTQBsLyKCZFqk28NW2ZjT5OxLWw4LnIiNoXtfN8YxcvEHkccE__RdrcmW1XpFSimqD87rP3-P7nc4-ZaMWqhdAaSejR2vqna8/s320/Pantaloon.jpg" width="196" /></a></div>Sometimes this was Dottore, who was not necessarily a medical doctor, but might be a doctor of law or philosophy. Other times, this function was filled by Pantalone, later known as Pantaloon.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Pantalone was a greedy old man who frequently had an itch for Isabella. Originally he spoke with a Venetian accent and tried to disguise his age by wearing tight-fitting red breeches. In earlier commedia, he might try to snatch the heroine for himself, but later writers, like Carlo Goldoni, softened the character. In Goldoni's <i><a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-servant-of-two-masters.html" target="_blank">The Servant of Two Masters</a></i>, Pantalone is far more human.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Here's the figurine the Met labeled as Pantaloon. (The accession number is the same as for Harlequin.) In this case, it's his cape-like coat that's red rather than his breeches.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">If you're at the Met on Fifth Avenue, you can currently see all of these miniatures on view in Gallery 533. Even if they are not exact reproductions of the actors who strutted on the stage in the 18th century, they at least give us a good idea of what their costumes and physical mannerisms might have looked like.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_uOI-BjK1hFEucm7V9HkW6VntShlF5ojg8ZK3ZeAzt-LPW-R9knXbLJgHutbxdIZ1od4dSsp5XoAHy6wseZEk_Io57okM9tkAciqAbbk36opxHFOw5SXfDP269PQokQ_zBtHUhUUh7D8uYrLn1pRjhr01eIsooBuPPSr-ikTbaK-4k_AHFYvp7wwAnoY/s3661/Met%20Display.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1889" data-original-width="3661" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_uOI-BjK1hFEucm7V9HkW6VntShlF5ojg8ZK3ZeAzt-LPW-R9knXbLJgHutbxdIZ1od4dSsp5XoAHy6wseZEk_Io57okM9tkAciqAbbk36opxHFOw5SXfDP269PQokQ_zBtHUhUUh7D8uYrLn1pRjhr01eIsooBuPPSr-ikTbaK-4k_AHFYvp7wwAnoY/w400-h206/Met%20Display.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>James Armstrong, Playwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07007390197279245395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7693302489402178925.post-77920509266441123342023-12-09T18:34:00.000-08:002023-12-09T18:34:34.270-08:00Wedding Night PublishedMy short play <i>Wedding Night</i>, which previously had a <a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2023/03/wedding-night-in-dc.html" target="_blank">staged reading in D.C.</a> at Anacostia Playhouse, is now published in <i>PSA</i>, the journal of the Pirandello Society of America.<div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRGrG8pL1cBvbr5Bt9MyqyapUbG7_1yRlipUiRx-bYEVjSWKqxVp3gSNb4szcEM0lxj1VKzHOwGjPnRvEKczWFiw4YcI55O95mka2zn-BHX7YoGMoIlvt44x2GE8LPnrpZAMohC6cNmt8xrMAVT10OkudVaIGqk2Rx10QgaREFpTFp1Q8VfBy9DEJqdew/s2561/20231209_203137.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2561" data-original-width="1623" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRGrG8pL1cBvbr5Bt9MyqyapUbG7_1yRlipUiRx-bYEVjSWKqxVp3gSNb4szcEM0lxj1VKzHOwGjPnRvEKczWFiw4YcI55O95mka2zn-BHX7YoGMoIlvt44x2GE8LPnrpZAMohC6cNmt8xrMAVT10OkudVaIGqk2Rx10QgaREFpTFp1Q8VfBy9DEJqdew/s320/20231209_203137.jpg" width="203" /></a></div>The play is freely adapted from Luigi Pirandello’s short story “Prima notte,” which was first published in 1900. It follows a young woman saying goodbye to her mother on her wedding night. Both know the coming marriage will not be ideal, but as darkness descends, new possibilities emerge that no one ever anticipated. </div><div><br /></div><div>My play is included alongside three other dramas also inspired by Pirandello short stories. These are <i>If </i>by Robert Brophy adapted from the story “Se…” (“If…”), <i>Vilomah</i> (a Sanskrit word meaning “against the order of things”) by Elisabetta Bracer adapted from “Quando si comprende” (“War”), and <i>To the Moon and Back</i> by Joshua Piper adapted from “Una Giornata” (“A Single Day”).</div><div><br /></div><div>Early in his career, Pirandello began writing plays that were considered <a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2013/07/theatre-of-grotesque.html" target="_blank">Theatre of the Grotesque</a>. These plays used what he called “umorismo” which is a type of painful laughter that accompanies a sense of tragic bewilderment. Stefano Boselli, the Theatre and Performance Outreach Officer for <i>PSA</i>, mentioned <i>Wedding Night</i>’s connection to umorismo in a forward to the four plays.</div><div><br /></div><div>Boselli, who also goes by the stage name Stebos, is a talented director in addition to being a scholar. He has directed original and classic works, including plays originally performed by the <a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2014/09/grand-guignol.html" target="_blank">Theatre du Grand-Guignol</a>.</div>James Armstrong, Playwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07007390197279245395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7693302489402178925.post-53740063016786381982023-12-04T06:32:00.000-08:002023-12-04T06:32:07.875-08:00Advent of the CarolYesterday was the first Sunday of Advent, which means the season of <i>A Christmas Carol</i> is upon us yet again.<div><br /></div><div>For the past couple of years, <a href="https://www.passagetheatre.org/" target="_blank">Passage Theatre Company</a> in Trenton has performed my adaptation of the classic Charles Dickens story. This year, they are instead having a holiday singalong, but if you want to get your <i>Carol </i>on, you can see a costumed reading this Wednesday at the <a href="https://www.pennclub.org/" target="_blank">Penn Club</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Friends of Dickens New York is sponsoring the reading, which features Warren Wyss as Scrooge. Warren previously acted with Phylicia Rashad in The Public Theater's production of <i><a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2017/08/a-dream.html" target="_blank">A Midsummer Night's Dream</a></i>. Other readers include Lynn Manuell, Kitty Loving, and myself. Yes, I adapted the script, and will also be performing.</div><div><br /></div><div>Celebrations commence at a 6:00 reception. Around 6:15, we'll begin caroling, and the reading itself will be at 6:30. The event is for Penn Club members and their guests, but Su Quinn, who is a member of the club as well as a Friend of Dickens, says anyone interested can contact her at: suyapaquinn@me.com</div><div><br /></div><div>Tickets for non-members are $25 and include complimentary drinks. If you're interested, please come!</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizjD5y_6uzj9J-HTKj8OekHHzOHzdsE2NW7Ubtb5QG_sH_I9hgQ2fk5bUB-7uLRboMDDgRcF9ogYw-ROaHo43h_JKcxGhSdjaYwSdl0eV8eQLE6IVPPMgqDHfBSSrZxSJbueZ_Efhh3loqHeiDbAFMdVdtA_YI6x434eTbKo9zH2MT9rCQR8xYfZz38Ac/s2048/CarolNotice.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1092" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizjD5y_6uzj9J-HTKj8OekHHzOHzdsE2NW7Ubtb5QG_sH_I9hgQ2fk5bUB-7uLRboMDDgRcF9ogYw-ROaHo43h_JKcxGhSdjaYwSdl0eV8eQLE6IVPPMgqDHfBSSrZxSJbueZ_Efhh3loqHeiDbAFMdVdtA_YI6x434eTbKo9zH2MT9rCQR8xYfZz38Ac/w341-h640/CarolNotice.jpeg" width="341" /></a></div><div><br /></div>James Armstrong, Playwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07007390197279245395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7693302489402178925.post-39710623559333299852023-11-28T20:36:00.000-08:002023-11-28T20:36:30.040-08:00Pegasus PlayLab FinalistMy play <i>Apprenticeship</i> has been chosen as a finalist for the Pegasus PlayLab program at the University of Central Florida.<div><br /></div><div>UCF hosts the Pegasus PlayLab every summer, rehearsing new scripts for two weeks in collaboration with playwrights and subsequently presenting the work to the public.</div><div><br /></div><div>Last year, the program offered three workshops and a full production in a blackbox theatre. Past playwrights have included Aniello Fontano, Skye Robinson Hillis, and Eliana Pipes.</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Apprenticeship</i> tells the story of Matt, who lands his dream job working for a man who is a legend in the publishing industry. As he learns what it takes to succeed, however, Matt starts to question who his role models should really be.</div><div><br /></div><div>The play has had readings over Zoom, but has yet to be fully produced. Earlier this year, it was announced as a finalist for Amphibian Stage's SparkFest in Fort Worth, Texas.</div>James Armstrong, Playwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07007390197279245395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7693302489402178925.post-19987121459260158682023-11-26T07:49:00.000-08:002023-11-26T07:49:28.756-08:00TranslationsLast night, I saw Irish Repertory Theatre's production of <i>Translations</i>, Brian Friel's disturbingly timely portrait of imperialists and resistance fighters competing to sink to new lows of inhumanity.<div><br /></div><div>Today, Dublin is still dealing with the fallout of riots that followed a recent knife attack. Violence has begotten more violence, just as it does in the play. <i>Translations</i> begins with arguments over words, a topic that remains fraught today as well. While much rhetoric is aimed at the "violence" of language, ultimately words are just words, and as characters in the play make clear, the names of things are continually evolving anyway.</div><div><br /></div><div>Debates over place names turn violent in Friel's play after British Lieutenant Yolland, played by Raffi Barsoumian, begins to fall in love with a curly-haired Irish lass named Maire, portrayed by Mary Wiseman. He speaks virtually no Irish, and she speaks virtually no English, but they bond while dancing, and their scene together just before the intermission is heartwarming and funny, even if the audience can see the society around them will never allow their budding romance to bloom.</div><div><br /></div><div>Barsoumian plays the awkward and shy Yolland with a sweetness and good nature, as well as with a conscience that leads him to examine his own role in Britain's colonial project in Ireland. When the lieutenant disappears, it seems that resistance fighters couldn't have found a more innocent victim. The British army responds predictably, with an over-reaction that is likely to accomplish nothing but create more resistance fighters.</div><div><br /></div><div>Though this production was planned months ago, parallels with the Hamas-Israel conflict seem inevitable. In Ireland, the troubles depicted in the play in 1833 had deep roots, going back to the 1798 uprising referenced by Friel, and much more before that. The violence continued into the 1980s when the play premiered, and did not substantially end until the Good Friday Agreement of 1998.</div><div><br /></div><div>With the temporary cease fire in the Middle East leading to at least a little progress, we have to hope that other parts of the world don't spiral down into the chaos and violence Ireland suffered for so long.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoxxIjkoZ4gsnan9_jj0LQkKrN2MQmVGqbBi1awgS-OlJ4GRwGwbgf7VVZdPsMyYxWIX026TnYVdK6OuIXsV5l2ilddIzwB9_1P-VaKHL_nqTknqSsjJ9sxEe9zbCP6fBXlTjgKgFWltMy-F57-u_11_8BRUrTijdRng4MwDd9u1bH71G5tHFYDQMGv2Q/s2560/Translations310-scaled.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2202" data-original-width="2560" height="344" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoxxIjkoZ4gsnan9_jj0LQkKrN2MQmVGqbBi1awgS-OlJ4GRwGwbgf7VVZdPsMyYxWIX026TnYVdK6OuIXsV5l2ilddIzwB9_1P-VaKHL_nqTknqSsjJ9sxEe9zbCP6fBXlTjgKgFWltMy-F57-u_11_8BRUrTijdRng4MwDd9u1bH71G5tHFYDQMGv2Q/w400-h344/Translations310-scaled.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div>James Armstrong, Playwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07007390197279245395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7693302489402178925.post-49058446717348732192023-11-16T20:59:00.000-08:002023-11-16T21:02:44.596-08:00Arms and the ManI just got back from seeing <a href="https://gingoldgroup.org/" target="_blank">Gingold Theatrical Group</a>'s magnificently fun production of Bernard Shaw's <i>Arms and the Man</i> on Theatre Row.<div><br /></div><div>The set, splendidly designed by Lindsay G. Fuori, is meant to resemble a Victorian <a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2020/01/toy-theatres-from-girard-collection.html" target="_blank">toy theatre</a>, something I've <a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2022/07/gothic-toy-theatres.html" target="_blank">written about on this blog</a> in the past. When Shaw later wrote a screenplay based on his play, he imagined a filmed version that looked like it was taking place on a toy stage, and that is what you'll see in the present production.</div><div><br /></div><div>Shanel Bailey, who was wonderful earlier this year in the revival of Lynn Nottage's <i><a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2023/02/crumbs-from-pensacola.html" target="_blank">Crumbs from the Table of Joy</a></i>, plays Raina, the romantic young woman who hides a soldier in her bedroom in the aftermath of a battle. Keshav Moodliar plays the soldier, who drives much of the action of the play, and gains the affections of Raina in spite of her engagement to a dashing but dim Major Sergius Saranoff, played by Ben Davis.</div><div><br /></div><div>Other strong performances are delivered by Delphi Borich, Thomas Jay Ryan, Evan Zes, and Karen Ziemba, the last of whom previously played the title role in GTG's <i><a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2021/10/mrs-warrens-profession.html" target="_blank">Mrs. Warren's Profession</a></i> in 2021. Director David Staller brings the whole thing together with style and grace.</div><div><br /></div><div>The production closes on Saturday, so see it while you can!</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKmNomTSgf7cA4Zb2z1qbY-zu4ZT9u1birPVKcy8vQfeEbZLjLakVRxlqtq7kiH5pXcrEDUCP1vId_UD_kGVVjVxpUogx_nWeEWYz2hgf8-Pcnwt0emzMBWeGJtknNXLdGmBg6ArS-pJbx6MULvM7v8Im6Dm0wFSopNXub7DTbeDOY-3AlupfsM06cCsA/s1161/set.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="606" data-original-width="1161" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKmNomTSgf7cA4Zb2z1qbY-zu4ZT9u1birPVKcy8vQfeEbZLjLakVRxlqtq7kiH5pXcrEDUCP1vId_UD_kGVVjVxpUogx_nWeEWYz2hgf8-Pcnwt0emzMBWeGJtknNXLdGmBg6ArS-pJbx6MULvM7v8Im6Dm0wFSopNXub7DTbeDOY-3AlupfsM06cCsA/w400-h209/set.png" width="400" /></a></div>James Armstrong, Playwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07007390197279245395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7693302489402178925.post-42697110973928605412023-11-13T06:37:00.000-08:002023-11-13T06:37:33.607-08:00Semi-finalist for the Clive Award<div style="text-align: left;">Today I received news that my play <i><a href="https://darknightofthesoultheplay.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Dark Night of the Soul</a></i> is a semi-finalist for Fellowship for Performing Arts' inaugural playwriting competition, the Clive Award.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Fellowship for Performing Arts was founded by award-winning actor, Max McLean, whose one-man rendition of the Book of Genesis was developed at Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey and later produced at the <a href="https://www.edfringe.com/" target="_blank">Edinburgh Fringe Festival</a>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The production company tells stories from a Christian worldview to engage a diverse audience. It has a special interest in the works of C.S. Lewis and produced new theatrical adaptations of <i>The Screwtape Letters</i> and <i>The Great Divorce</i> as well as a play and film about Lewis’ spiritual journey called <i>The Most Reluctant Convert</i>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This year the company launched the Clive Awards as a competition to encourage the writing of new works that advance its mission. <i>Dark Night of the Soul</i>, which provides a fresh new take on the story of Joan of Arc, certainly fits that bill. The play was previously chosen by Nittany Theatre at the Barn as the winner of the theatre's <a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2017/07/free-speech-contest-winner.html" target="_blank">2017 National Free Speech Contest</a>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Finalists for the Clive Award will be announced next month. Fingers crossed!</div>James Armstrong, Playwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07007390197279245395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7693302489402178925.post-1975421997697257222023-11-11T08:54:00.000-08:002023-11-11T08:54:48.564-08:00A Mangled MindIf you've seen the farce <i>The Play That Goes Wrong</i>, you know how much fun the writing team of Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields can be. Now that team is back with a new show called <i>Mind Mangler: A Night of Tragic Illusion</i>.<div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZMjWqyyk2zLkXiAyjZIR8_tUCzytDpTURXURq91z4bva9RlTH89_v51TuKmEoUlWErYoZTT5rt5EoEGjVkvKKioJlBQfIHlRQ7f6yDoSCqqCXaGZIbT4Ycn7jDnz9RBAVkIt6ZyhitazNuF-_3Y4smbBDX5dRWMK9p1ckXU1MumlfEFQKzTv2tgZKv9g/s2202/MM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2202" data-original-width="1331" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZMjWqyyk2zLkXiAyjZIR8_tUCzytDpTURXURq91z4bva9RlTH89_v51TuKmEoUlWErYoZTT5rt5EoEGjVkvKKioJlBQfIHlRQ7f6yDoSCqqCXaGZIbT4Ycn7jDnz9RBAVkIt6ZyhitazNuF-_3Y4smbBDX5dRWMK9p1ckXU1MumlfEFQKzTv2tgZKv9g/s320/MM.jpg" width="193" /></a></div>I saw the first preview last night, and I don't want to give away any of the show's secrets, but if you enjoyed <i>The Play That Goes Wrong</i>, you'll have a rollicking time at this show as well. Instead of watching an Agatha Christie-style murder mystery go off the tracks, though, you'll be watching one of the world's worst mentalists run into problem after problem as disasters mount up on stage.</div><div><br /></div><div>Henry Lewis plays the titular Mind Mangler, a character who promises to mystify the audience, but more often has them roaring with laughter. Lewis plays the character straight, so when his tricks inevitable turn sour, the results are all the more hysterical. Occasionally, some of his tricks actually do work, which leads the audience to be delighted at being fooled when they least expect to be.</div><div><br /></div><div>Jonathan Sayer plays a completely random audience member who just happens to be in the theatre wearing a shirt labeling him as such. While the Mind Mangler tries his hardest to make his stooge appear to be a randomly selected participant, Sayer's character consistently fails to do what he is supposed to, with predictably comical results.</div><div><br /></div><div>What really makes the show, however, is its heart. The Mind Mangler, recently divorced and attempting to get his life back on track with a nationwide tour of the U.S., is trying his hardest, which gives his failures an emotional resonance in addition to their comedic absurdity. Check it out if you can!</div>James Armstrong, Playwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07007390197279245395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7693302489402178925.post-27321046409956409322023-11-07T15:18:00.003-08:002023-11-07T15:18:18.878-08:00Reviewing UtopiaThe latest issue of the journal <i>Shaw</i> is now out, and it includes a book review I wrote of Siân Adiseshiah's new book <i>Utopian Drama: In Search of a Genre</i>.<div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD5Ra0lYfMMeXyXbz3t45K7Gwrzk37QesmajbmwioRSVw2mbSWH0JFoAzrn1kKELtdOBhmbNLxhG4VZGk2tWiJCNtyM7fEmp5rGhlrTVF1I5yRuVsswYlnIZ-9mS5yUVy_GXiliqt56Ppn9k0OtM95on0EnEJlkselQNVbwWYwpRP-PbvB1sQ8_BzcU4w/s738/JesterShaw.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="738" data-original-width="491" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD5Ra0lYfMMeXyXbz3t45K7Gwrzk37QesmajbmwioRSVw2mbSWH0JFoAzrn1kKELtdOBhmbNLxhG4VZGk2tWiJCNtyM7fEmp5rGhlrTVF1I5yRuVsswYlnIZ-9mS5yUVy_GXiliqt56Ppn9k0OtM95on0EnEJlkselQNVbwWYwpRP-PbvB1sQ8_BzcU4w/s320/JesterShaw.png" width="213" /></a></div>Adiseshiah's full-length study of how dramatists have staged utopia naturally has a chapter on Bernard Shaw, whose <i><a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2018/10/back-to-methuselah.html" target="_blank">Back to Methuselah</a></i> is a classic work of utopian literature. She also delves into some other plays by the writer, however, including <i><a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2023/04/shaws-critique-of-eugenics.html" target="_blank">The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles</a></i> and <i>Farfetched Fables</i>.</div><div><br /></div><div>I enjoyed the rest of the book, as well, which includes studies of <a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2021/09/the-clouds.html" target="_blank">Aristophanes</a> and other writers of <a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2023/04/old-comedy.html" target="_blank">Old Comedy</a>, as well as the early modern author Margaret Cavendish. British dramatist Howard Brenton also gets his own chapter. Though he isn't produced much today, I'll be talking about his play <i>Bloody Poetry</i> in January when I deliver a paper on <a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2021/01/dangerous-to-show.html" target="_blank">Lord Byron</a>'s impact on modern drama at the annual convention of the Modern Language Association.</div><div><br /></div><div>The journal has full-length articles by Bernard Dukore (whom I met this summer at a <a href="https://armstrongplays.blogspot.com/2023/06/shaw-conference-at-william-and-mary.html" target="_blank">Shaw conference at the College of William and Mary</a>), Michel Pharand, Brigitte Bogar, Kay Li, and others. It looks like editor Christopher Wixson has put together a wonderful issue. I'm looking forward to reading it!</div>James Armstrong, Playwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07007390197279245395noreply@blogger.com