Shakespeare in the Park

I had my first real theatre experience in Montreal last night. Sadly, I neglected to take pictures. I did take a picture of the program which I intended to post with this post, but sadly, I also neglected to recharge the battery after leaving the thing on for a couple hours the other day. Ooops.

So, my commentary will have to suffice, without any sort of visuals.

Shakespeare in the park is a tradition that happens in many parks all over the world. Happily, it is also a tradition in my own backyard park in Westmount, as I found out upon my return from Austin. On offer this year was The Taming of the Shrew, a play I've seen once, but had never read, so I will be unable to comment on the faithfulness to the script, though I do know they cleverly cut it short when it began to rain towards the end of the second half.

The stage was simple (as outdoor stages must be) but effective, and well lent to the humorous nature of the play, with a hole in the center of the stage frequently being used to garner laughs from the audience, and also as an effective portal for quick entries and exits. Props were minimal, but also put to good use. For those of you unfamiliar, Shrew is one of the comedies, which, of course, means everyone winds up married by the end. Spoilers! Not really.

The costumes were a bizarre, vibrant mix of time periods, which might best be described as a thrift store raid, ranging from a 1920's-esque smoking jacket, to the country home uniform of an English gentleman (tweed cap, scarf, macintosh) to a full on baby blue disco suit, worn by the incredibly lanky Petruchio (take a moment, and picture it please, baby blue disco pants on four and a half foot long freaking legs).

Casting was excellent, with actors being well physically matched to their characters (caricatures?). Hortensio, Bianca's long time suitor, who also happens to be something of a fool, was played by an adorably short redhead by the name of Stephen Joffe. This in contrast to Petruchio, Bianca's sister Kate's husband and "tamer", who was, as I said, absurdly tall, which perfectly matched the absurd, witty, over the top nature of the character. The actor, Alex McCooeye, definitely knew how to make good use of his lanky body to best comedic effect. Think Jack Skellington or Watanuki from XXXholic.  Kate, the shrew herself, was also well cast, a bundle of sex and sass (and the actress hailed from Saskatchewan!). The play also did a new take on the character of Bianca, which I appreciated. The "humble" "beautiful" maid was also something of a spoiled brat, and absolutely flip. Very much a stereotypical "baby of  the family". 

Although the play was almost painfully over the top at first, which made me a little uncomfortable, once I got into it, I found that the over-the-top-ness was actually incredibly well-suited to the Shakespearean comedy. The extravagance of the acting made the wordplay much easier to follow, and much more enjoyable. The extra "modern" jokes thrown in (like Hortensio strumming a broken ukulele and singing "O bianca, thou breakest my heart, thou shakest mine confidence daily" after the fashion of Simon and Garfunkel)  added to the essence of the Shakespearean play rather than took away from it. I felt like the actors had opportunity to put a lot of themselves and their own humor into the characters, and it came off very nicely. Petruchio's servant Curtis was especially well done in this regard.

 Too frequently, Shakespeare is taken too seriously, and we forget the nature of the audience he would initially have been catering to. These would have been the largely uneducated masses, who only came for a good laugh and a good time. This production of Taming of the Shrew truly got back to that essence of the Shakespearean comedy.

I would also like to applaud the actors, as they are currently halfway through an absolutely grueling  schedule of performances, beginning on July 19th and continuing through August 19th, with stagings occurring in parks all over Montreal. This is an incredibly high energy show, with women being tossed around like sacks of flour, dancing, singing, and a whole lot of screaming. Already the wear was starting to show a bit in their voices, so I wish them luck in powering through the next couple weeks of performances.

Overall, well done. I am hoping to start following the Repercussion Theatre company more closely, as I have been somewhat starved for theatre since coming to Montreal, and this has just served to whet rather than sate my appetite.

The Most Awkward Man

Recently watched Ghost Rider Two: Spirit of Vengeance with the man-thing (his idea). It was surprisingly much better than the first. Not amazing or thought-provoking cinema by any means, but the jokes were good, the female co-star was hot, and the story actually seemed to get better as the movie progressed (weird, huh?).

Still, the role of Johnny Blaze is not one I have an easy time reconciling Nic Cage with. He is too old. His face is too naturally serious. He doesn't know how to act (then again, comic book movie, maybe not a pre-requisite -- I'ma get burned for that one ^_^u).

All in all, the man is just too AWKWARD to be playing a motorcycle riding, molten chain tossing tormented soulless creature of divine retribution.

Johnny Blaze

I don't know if its just me, but I don't see the similarity. 

More pics of Nic Cage being awkward promoting ghostrider: 

"You want me to hold my arms naturally? Like this?"

"Oooh! Naturally!. .. 
Like this!"

"But if I don't crouch behind
the poster, how will people
read it?"

"Bless you, my son"

Promoting Sorcerer's Apprentice, Cage shows that his awkwardness is contagious: 

Not only is the man himself awkward, but so are his fan sites. Here are a few gems I found around the intarwebs:
-Cagealot Castle: Where Nicholas Cage and Awesome Collide
- Nicky's Vixens: The International Nicholas Cage Fan Forum
- Dean's Nicolas Cage Fan Page
- Nick Cage Fan Club

More awkward Nic Cage:
- Nic Cage as Everyone << bahahahaha
- Awkward Fan Art 

Cabaret

I watched this 1972 film today. The movie is set in 1931 Berlin during the rise of the Nazi Party, and centers on the erratic and intertwined lives of american singer and dancer Sally (played by Liza Minnelli) and British Brian, played by Michael Fox. Despite Scott laughing at me for watching it, and despite the rather sad ending, I liked it. I can understand why cabaret went home with eight academy awards that year, including best actress (say what you will about Liza, I LOVED her as Sally. Nyah.)

Liza as Sally

The film, first of all, is well written, and quite stylish. I found myself drooling a little over elements of the wardrobe. Maybe I was a drag queen in another life. The cinematography was great (they won another academy award for that as well), with a range of interesting shots, and a use of lighting that had a weight of meaning to it. Lighting for a feeling, not lighting for the script, if that makes sense. Yeah, you can tell I wasn't a film major. So sue me. *grins*

Love Natalia's driving outfit

Second, I felt that Cabaret did an interesting take on capturing a little heeded segment of history. Much attention is given to the time during and after the Second World War in film, but not much has been done on the climate in Germany leading up to the start of the war. There is a sense in which the movie captures the potent hangover of the "roaring twenties," and the desire to cling to a lifestyle of decadence that is quickly becoming unfeasible in the insanely inflated German economy. There is a sense throughout the movie of a gathering shadow, to which the characters turn a determinedly blind eye as they pursue their dreams of fame and wealth and romance. There is an eerie scene where Brian and his (sugardaddy?) Maximillion are sitting at an outdoor cafe, and a Hitler Youth begins singing a song called "Tomorrow belongs to me", and nearly the entire cafe crowd joins in. Here is an example of where the lighting is so exquisitely done. This scene was shot in the light of a near-perfect summer afternoon, an ironic contrast which makes the viewer even more keenly aware of the dark times the Youth's word's are foreshadowing. I THOUGHT IT WAS CLEVER.

Cabaret, despite its closing assertion that "life is a cabaret" reminds us that life is anything but. Germany--and the rest of the world--like Elsie in the final song number by Sally, is coming close to killing itself young with alcohol and pills. The absolute abandon of the twenties can no longer be sustained, and something is going to give. The final shot, which shows an audience of Nazi party members grotesquely reflected in the waved glass of the cabaret backdrop reminds us that the dissipated lifestyle warps one's ability to view reality, and makes one blind to danger. Cabaret dreams cannot last, just as the world was shaken awake from its 1920's stupor by first the depression, and then the war. 

I read it as a beautiful, but cautionary tale. I could just be pulling things out of my ass though. I usually do.

Simon Pegg, and "Big Nothing"

Last night I watched (and Scott slept through--I'm beginning to believe this is the scale whereby a movie's merit can be measured) a movie called "Big Nothing". I was interested, because it claimed to be a comedy featuring this guy:

Simon Pegg, who is absolutely genius in films like Shawn of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Not so genius here. But first, about Big Nothing. It wasn't a *bad* movie. It had its funny moments, and a plot more twisted than my panties during exam season. David Schwimmer plays a loving, desperate father very well. The scenes between him and his daughter gave me the warm fuzzies. He has been fired from his teaching job do to a degenerative memory disorder, and in wanting to provide for his family, he gets involved with a call-center employee named Gus (Simon Pegg), who is planning on blackmailing a reverend for visiting illegal porn sites.  Josie, an ex girlfriend of Gus', played by Alice Eve (*drool*) gets involved in the scam, and everything goes fine--until bodies start piling up.

Although it tries to be funny, the whole movie comes off a little flat. Its not nearly as cleverly funny as most of the movies we see Simon Pegg in.  Nor is Pegg himself the same bumbling, easily frustrated, but unbelievably funny character he normally plays. In fact, he sort of just comes off as an asshole in Big Nothing. Which would be fine, maybe a nice bit of variety in his acting style, IF THIS WASNT SUPPOSED TO BE A COMEDY.

So, why is Pegg less funny than usual?

Is it the script? Maybe--although twisted, the plot is also as obvious as a baseball bat up the wazoo. The character of Gus himself? Perhaps. Though there is always plenty of room to make a conman funny. Is it just that Pegg isn't really the main character? Or maybe its because Pegg's comedic genius is completely overshadowed by Alice Eve's dazzling smile and hoop earrings.

No, what I really think is missing here (as Scott pointed out in the ten minutes he stayed awake during this movie) is the accent. Gus is from Vegas. Pegg has dropped his accent. Is it possible that without the accent, Simon Pegg just isn't funny?

I would argue, to a degree, yes. For example, the entire movie Hot Fuzz is made funny by its excessive Britishness. If you are not familiar with the pace and flavour of small-town British life, the entire first half of the movie can be incredibly dull, but if you are familiar with it, there is alot to laugh at. (I know, because I was the only one laughing like a moron in the first half of the movie when we saw it in theatre). Similarly, Pegg's character in How to Lose Friends and Alienate People is given added humour by the way his laid-back, pub-cozy British character contrasts with the more uptight world of American fame and fortune.

Take the Britain out of Simon Pegg, and what you are left with is this:

A redneck.