nothing but fun

Last night I saw Miss Buncle's Book at Lifeline Theater.  It was just plain fun. Nothing deep or enlightening just a fun evening of light comedy that almost no one bothers to put on or make (in film) anymore.  I would call the story "Jane Austen light" with more laughs and less judgement.  Very entertaining.  It was fast paced with one brief intermission and lasted roughly two hours and twenty minutes in total- so if you want to just have some fun one night- go check it out - the run is just beginning....

a completely enjoyable evening - and now I am off to finish up my DART photo assignments before we leave for Bulgaria & Romania...

the reviews are in...

for the first two plays of the three we are seeing this week...

First-  Jane Eyre at the Lifeline... excellent performances- I liked the adaptation a lot but Phil was critical of both the production values and the plot (he called it "Chick Lit") - I saw much to admire- the story shaped in your mind just like when you read a book - you could imagine it the way you wanted in the context of the sparse set... and there was heat between Rochester and Jane that I thought really carried the narrative line - and I really admired the "proto-feminism" (as they termed it) Jane exhibited. So I would give this a thumbs up and I think Phil's review would be "go with your girlfriend" LOL

and every time I have a brush with the story of Jane Eyre I am reminded of the fabulous film "prequel" The Wide Sargasso Sea- which was also a book, but I did not read it, only saw the wonderful film... I can highly recommend that film and then a follow up of Jane Eyre (the book if you are outside the Chicago theater area and can't make it to this production.) And I might add, I loved the casting - completely blind to the ethnicity and race of the various characters... I thought it added strength to the back story of Rochester's connections in Jamaica....

and then tonight's production of Pensacola Commons-  well, first let me say that I have a hard time looking positively on any play that has not one character of courage or integrity (check out my reviews of Creditors from last season at Remy Bumppo or Philadelphia Here I Come from last year's Asolo season...) and I had the same problem with this one... each character in turn shows their despicable side or their lack of honesty in some way within the play...

SPOILER ALERT- from the 16 year old niece who sleeps with the aunt's 30 year old boyfriend when the Aunt spends the night in the hospital - to the sister who abuses her own daughter in anger at her mother's dishonesty in hiding what can only be described as a "whole shitload of cash" from the people her husband has bankrupted-  seriously - hated all of them... thought they got what they deserved... or maybe not as bad as they deserved but their whining about how they had been treated smacks of a complete lack of introspection and a complete lack of understanding of the law of cause and effect (frequently referred to these days as karma) - so my review is - despite several excellent performances from those in the roles of Becca and Judith- "don't bother"

next up in the theatrical roll call - Death Tax at the Lookingglass Theater- so stay tuned...

Theater Season Begins...

As I mentioned in the Cascabel post, our theater season begins in September and our first production on the calendar is Jane Eyre at Timeline Theater - followed by the Northlight production of Pensacola Commons.  Also on the schedule: Death Tax at Lookingglass Theater, Both Your  Houses at Remy Bumppo, and Danny Casolaro Died For You at Lifeline Theater. All before we leave for the winter and the theater season there (scheduled for eight productions over the winter.... five at Asolo and three at FSU Conservatory) - so stay tuned if you are a "theater buff"....

so follow along for reviews of the things we go to see and then keep an eye for the good ones in your own local theaters- many of the places we go are very small- Northlight is a moderate sized theater, as is Lookingglass but the others are really small and off off off Loop.... so never a moment without something to do here in the big city.... LOL

Jane Austen's EMMA @ Dead Writer's

so our Friday night activity was a new theater venue (new to us) called Dead Writer's Theater.  We went to see Jane Austen's "Emma" - a book I loved (but not quite as much as Pride & Prejudice) and at least the third production of Austen we have seen.  We saw Sense & Sensibility at Northlight and Northanger Abbey at Remy Bumppo (both of those productions featured Greg Matthew Anderson, one of our favorite performers- see the post "a virtuoso performance" http://semifreelife.blogspot.com/2012/04/virtuoso-performance.html for my review of his incredible Chesapeake)

In general I find Austen an entertaining evening- so I was predisposed to liking the play....and I did - however, I  thought the performance of Emma lacked subtlety - this Emma was too shallow and one didn't really see that she had another side that was not so meddlesome and know-it-all... and honestly I think Mr. Knightley could have been a touch more appealing as well.  I did think the young woman cast a Miss Smith was perfect in her minor role and several of the others were quite good (Mrs. Watson in particular did well in a secondary role)

overall I would say- if you are interested in this story rent the Emma version from Miramax films with Jeremy Northam as Knightley and Gwyneth Paltrow as Emma... there you will see a masterful and nuanced performance of the leads that sets a standard for dramatic productions of Austen's wonderful novel.

this was a new theater (773) for us - and the facility was excellent- and they have some really interesting things going on in the upcoming months - unfortunately we are out of town for the next two events of Dead Writers Collective-

the staging was also excellent- and made wonderful use of limited set space in creating many many different scenes as the year long action took place...

and the JASNA folks gave us another bookmark (we got one from the Northanger Abbey play at Remy Bumppo I believe- or perhaps it was Sense & Sensibility at Northlight- LOL)

the cast-

so our evening of entertainment brought several good laughs and a touching moment or two... but this was not in my opinion "must see" the way say "The North China Lover" was at Lookingglass or "The City and the City" was at Lifeline - or even "Concerning Strange Devices from the West" was at Time Line...

however I am intrigued by their upcoming works and so will probably stay in the loop of information on their productions.

more incredible theater

we headed home on Easter Sunday and arrived on Monday night- by Thursday we were back into the depths of a busy social calendar.  On Thursday night we saw another amazing play- one I am still thinking about days later-

The play was The City and The City- an is extremely hard to describe in a short synopsis so I am going to just take from the theater's own materials-

the theater is right across from the El tracks near the Morse station-

an art installation is the neighbor next door-

as if we hadn't seen enough incredible theater in the last couple of weeks on Friday we also saw ANOTHER good play - at the Timeline Theater-

two more winners in our recent theater outings- and we have two more chances in the next two weeks as we go to Remy Bumppo for Creditors and to Northlight to see Stones in His Pocket.... will let you know how those are----