Postmodernist Plays Take 2!

Well, well, well...
Long time no talk blogger. It's been a long time since I've written these types of blogs, so please excuse the perhaps awkward nature of this blog post. But I guess I'll just begin?
I'm just going to drive right in and talk about the new worlds I journeyed into the past couple of weeks amidst the fall play, college apps and other pieces of school work. Despite the few hours this trek consumed, I'm so happy I took the opportunity to watch these plays. I'm still regretting giving that one ticket away! It's alright I still have What the Body Does Not Remember left - extremely excited for this one.

Picture of the set and music played. Projections.

The first show I saw - the Tempest - was spectacular. From all the shows I've seen so far, it's definitely been my absolute favorite. Sure the Russian was a little hard to understand, and I'm not the On a side note, I do not remember the names of the characters because it was in Russian.
best at following Korean text, but I'm pretty sure I got the basic gist of the storyline. Where do I start with this production? Scorched moments:  

 

• Any moment when the doors open. There's always something completely different in the doors and the audience is kept on their toes clueless on what to anticipate. I especially loved it when the son of the king was dangling from his foot, the lighting was blue to simulate drowning. Also when the doors revealed a buffet of some sort. A really deranged play for sure.
• The use of music to transition different sequences of events. The motif of the same tune woven throughout the play. Its live nature.
  
• When the characters stood on the top of the stage overlooking the craziness transpiring below them - he was the one performing the magic.
• The animal like state of the daughter. She was such a great actress. I wonder how it must have felt for her to be in a play with only men? Her name was Ariel and her dad's name was Prospero I think. Woah, I remembered some names!
• The use of water at any point. So beautiful.
• The wedding. Ariel's transformation.
• The smell of the cigarettes they smoked on stage. So realistic. Granted, I hate that smell, but still loved that element.

In general, the play really revolved around images of marine life. We constantly see projections of the sea, of storms, of waves and of clouds on the minimalistic stage. It involved three sides of a wall with three doors attached to each one and a platform behind it to elevate the actors behind the walls.

The lighting was quite bare and in a few instances, the audience was lit as well. I would say the play was set in modern day because the costumes definitely show the bourgeois nature of the characters. There was, not to mention, a scene where the characters went on a shopping spree buying designer sunglasses and suits with a credit card.
What I absolutely loved about this performance was how I could understand the sequence of events and the emotions the characters experienced through their body language. I speak 0 Russian, but their body language really transcended the language barrier.
Here's a video clip of their wonderful performance:

 

The next play I saw was Victor Ou Les Enfants au Pouvoir. I think this translates into Victor or the

Babies that Can - loosely. This was one of the most absurd plays that I've ever seen in my life. I kind of got the storyline, but I think I would have been confused whether it was in English, French, German or Spanish. But despite the nonsensicality of it all, I was still awe-struck by the end of the performance. There were so many eerie, strange, interesting aspects of this production. I'm just going to share some scorched moments first:

• The roots - the shadows made by them, their growth.
• Shadows projected onto the side.
• Victor's death.
• Scenes utilizing the pool of water in the front of the stage.
• Farting woman.
• How the stage gets bigger and smaller depending on the emotional state of the scene. 

The stage was really cool. It had mobile walls that moved closer to the middle or expanded outwards depending on the emotional state of the scene. As the play progressed the roots grew and the characters got more and more insane and the storyline more and more jumbled. Loads of expressive dialogue and some really weird weapons and such. I'm still perplexed by this as a whole, but I think I'll come back to this play a little bit later - after more research into the play and the company.

 

King lear will not be discussed in this blog - everyone saw it so What the Body Does Not REmember will instead be discussed. AT that time more on Victor as well.