My Day of Theatre
I got to have lunch with Will (of Designerblog….see link to right) yesterday. In the past we’ve met up in Harvard Square for lunch, but I’d been wanting to see his environment so I took the subway to Kendall Square and went to his office on the MIT campus. Aside from being an incredibly cool guy, his office is an incredibly cool space.
He gave me a complete tour of the MIT Theatricals set design and constrution area, as well as the loft of costumes. Such a fun and whimsical place – I could imagine having lots of fun in there! It would make work seem so much less like…well…work.
After a yummy lunch at MC-squared, we said our good-byes and we each headed back to work. Thanks for a great time, Will!
Then, last night I continued the theatrical theme by seeing “Laughing Wild” at the Boston Center for the Arts. I’m sure I’m saying that wrong, but this sort of thing confuses me. It was technically at the Wimberly Theatre in the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts by the Huntington Theatre Company. But that’s not the point.
The show was very fun, if not slightly uneven. The first two acts before intermission consisted of hilarious monologues. The first one by what appears to be an elegant woman who you come to find out suffers from fairly severe mental health issues. She starts the monologue describing an encounter with a man in the tuna aisle of the local market (where he was blocking her access to the cans of tuna so she hit him over the head and yelled at him to get the hell out of her way). But by the end you really feel like you get to know her and her illness (a brilliant performance). The second monologue is by another guy (who you soon find out was the man involved with the tuna incident). Similarly, he recalls that incident, then explains his own constant quest for personal affirmations and finding one’s self. Upon admitting his bisexuality, he goes off on a hilarious (yet poignant) tirade about God, the Bible and homosexuality.
The final act is where things (sort of) fell apart. In the final act, both of these people realize they’ve been having dreams involving the tuna incident (as well as Sally Jesse Raphael and Dr. Ruth). These dreams get more and more violent (murder). Then the man and woman converge at this earthy-crunchy sunrise-set hippie type event in Central Park. But at that point I couldn’t tell if they were still in dreamland or not.
I did enjoy the performances tremendously and the dialogue was very witty (the male actor was also the playwright, the female actor was apparently famous and even won an emmy for some TV work she did…but I didn’t know her).
And then the curtain went down on my very theatrical day and I woke up this morning to the realities of just another Thursday.
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Great descrition of the play. Sounds twisted and fun at the same time.
I love Christopher Durang’s (the actor and playwrite of the piece) work…its just quirky enough to keep it hilarious and interesting.
The actress in question is Debra Monk, truly one of the most versatile actresses around. Have you seen the movie JEFFREY (of course you have…you are gay…lol)? She played his mother in the movie. Now that you have seen her in the play you will recognize her popping up all over the television.
I must see this show.