avant garde

so on Saturday I went to see the performance at the Historic Asolo Theater of ETHEL called "Documerica".

First- here is the theater as I was awaiting the start of this unusual performance by the string quartet ETHEL...

the view from the stage (remaining photos taken from the program for the performance)

and here is some information about the performance-

cover of the Series program guide- with Julian Sands in upper left and ETHEL in the lower right-
(for the review of the Julian Sands show see http://semifreelife.blogspot.com/2015/02/just-plain-brilliant.html )

so I won't spend a ton of time on the review- it is mixed- several of the pieces were fabulous and a couple were grating to my ears. the younger members of the audience were very enthusiastic in their response to the show. And - there were younger audience members - which is sometimes not the case in this area of wealthy seniors...LOL Phil told me that the median income and age for Long Boat Key (where we do not live) is 290K and 68 and 99% white (so now you know why we don't live there- LOL) but this is a common demographic of the theater goers in the area ... (source for the data is Wikipedia)

so - while I really enjoyed the photographic part of Documerica (in some respects a tour of my youth) I was less enamoured by the music- great concept though to combine visuals with the sounds--- overall, glad I went also glad Phil did not- so not his style... and then we were up the next day for the big reunion! (stay tuned)

just plain brilliant

that is my three word review of the one man show by Julian Sands last night at the Historic Asolo Theater.  His evening - entitled "A Celebration of Harold Pinter" was absolutely masterful.  He commanded our attention standing alone on an unadorned stage with no soundtrack, virtually solely reading the poems of Pinter - interspersed with only an occasional quote from Pinter or anecdote about Pinter. Really remarkable evening of entertainment.

if you want a professional review - here is a link to the NYT review -
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/17/theater/reviews/a-celebration-of-harold-pinter-directed-by-john-malkovich.html

before this evening my main identification of Julian Sands was that of the role he played in A Room with a View- the suitor of Lucy Honeychurch- in a star studded cast of a wonderful adaptation by Merchant & Ivory. the romantic leading man- this is what he looked like then-

and here is the photo he provided for the program- LOL- time marches on-

the playbill from the show- 

a perfect encapsulation of the show-

directed by the always brilliant John Malkovich (an aside- I saw him in Chicago more than two decades ago just tear up the stage with his performance in Burn This- a memory of theater that has been completely unforgettable to me since that time!)

what Mr. Sands looked like last night as he delivered the poems and quotes of Pinter...

so WOW- really amazing talent all the way around- Pinter, Sands, Malkovich... what's not fabulous there?