Plays

I really hit the theater this weekend; my girlfriend and I saw three shows.

The first was on friday in Los Angeles. It is called Chasing Monsters, and was about an alcoholic and his inability to escape the cycle he was stuck in. It was an ugly play about a horrible part of life. In its way it was effective, but It was not the kind of thing that I enjoy watching.

Second was Saturday night in San Diego. My girlfriend and I drove down to the gaslamp district (which is apparently the cool part of town) and watched the Reduced Shakespeare Company do the complete works of William Shakespeare in 90 minutes.The show was hilarious. We had both seen it before, me in London and she in Mexico City. Before the show we had a chance to go to a local pub called The Tipsy Raven, and after the show we walked around the district a little lost but enjoying it. We really needed the laughs after the show we saw on Friday, and the night was a boatload of fun.

We spent the night in San Diego with a friend of mine and on Sunday we headed on back to LA via Downey where we watched Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel. I don't wish to trash the actors who did a good job, but Carousel is a shitty play. From the first scene I kept asking myself why the characters were doing what they were doing. The play is a tragedy but with completely unsympathetic characters, so when everything comes crashing down you don't care. The plot lacked subtlety, and the characters lacked depth. I spent the entire time snickering with my girlfriend and our other friend about how bad the play was. I fell a little bad about the people in front of us (there was nobody behind us) but if they could ignore the shittyness of the play then perhaps they could ignore the rudeness of my commentary.I could go on and on about the problems with the play but I would rather just put it behind me.

Probably the best part of the play was after the intermission and before act II, an older woman came on stage in a dress that belongs in an early 90s prom. Her expression and body language added a sense of silly enthusiasm to the event. She had this finishing school sense of delicate humor and propriety that when combined with her out-of-place fluffy dress made the whole situation giggle-inducing.

I have been to more plays in the past month than in the previous two years. I look forward to continuing the trend but at a slower pace.