Fangirl Road Trip Report (brief)
Dec. 1st, 2006 07:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lauraanne_gilmanI went up to Providence last night to see Conor McPherson's "Dublin Carol" at the Trinity Repertory Company, as previously mentioned in this LJ.
The play is, um, very Irish. Foul-mouthed and gut-wrenching and damned laugh-out-loud funny, about obsession, redemption, and the seduction of co-dependency. And whiskey. Billy Petersen (I now can think of him no other way) was.... well. I was worried he'd walk on stage and I'd be aware of him as Gil Grissom. Nuh-uh. You weren't even aware of him as William Petersen -- he was John, voice and body language and mad swings from manic to self-hatred. Heart-breaking job. The other two actors (Rachael Warren and Danny Mefford) were also quite good, although not in Petersen's league -- at times I wondered if Medford's body language was his own uncertainty rather than the character's. Warren, as John's daughter Mary, had (I thought) the best-maintained accent of the three.
Overall, though, they held me fascinated and appalled, amused and saddened for the full run (90 minutes, no intermission). So when you're stuck with CSI reruns, or a shortage of Grissom? It was in a very good cause. I'd recommend other folk see it, but the entire run has sold out. :-( But man, Petersen's good. Really good. Like some writers are either short fiction or novel specialists, some actors work best on stage or screen. Petersen is clearly at home with both. And I'd go out of my way to see another McPherson play.
And Trinity rep rocks. Great theater, well-trained staff, and even with the inevitable opening night hitches occuring (while "A Christmas Carol" was opening the same night, at the same time, in the upstairs theater) things still went smoothly to the visitor's eyes. The set design was almost perfect, the lighting cued perfectly, and the sound was fabulous.
I hung around for a little bit of the post-play discussion, which was very interesting, but decided that discretion was the better part of an hour and a half drive home.
I've ranted on this topic before, but I'm still annoyed this morning so figure it's worth another airing. While the staff at Trinity get high marks, and overall the audience was fabulous -- clearly hardcore theater-goers, most of them subscription holders, wearing work-appropriate or date/dinner clothing -- there was a too-large percentage of people in the audience who clearly thought that old jeans and t-shirts were acceptable attire. Did someone send a memo I missed? Because I wouldn't even go to a grade school play dressed like that, much less the opening night of a quality professional performance.
You dress up to feel good and make it an event, etc etc, sure. But even if you don't care for yourself, you also dress up to RESPECT THE PERFORMANCE, damnit. This ain't tv. You are seen as well as seeing.
/rantlet
and now, I have a copyedit waiting on me - the fun, it never ends here at Chateau Felidae....
The play is, um, very Irish. Foul-mouthed and gut-wrenching and damned laugh-out-loud funny, about obsession, redemption, and the seduction of co-dependency. And whiskey. Billy Petersen (I now can think of him no other way) was.... well. I was worried he'd walk on stage and I'd be aware of him as Gil Grissom. Nuh-uh. You weren't even aware of him as William Petersen -- he was John, voice and body language and mad swings from manic to self-hatred. Heart-breaking job. The other two actors (Rachael Warren and Danny Mefford) were also quite good, although not in Petersen's league -- at times I wondered if Medford's body language was his own uncertainty rather than the character's. Warren, as John's daughter Mary, had (I thought) the best-maintained accent of the three.
Overall, though, they held me fascinated and appalled, amused and saddened for the full run (90 minutes, no intermission). So when you're stuck with CSI reruns, or a shortage of Grissom? It was in a very good cause. I'd recommend other folk see it, but the entire run has sold out. :-( But man, Petersen's good. Really good. Like some writers are either short fiction or novel specialists, some actors work best on stage or screen. Petersen is clearly at home with both. And I'd go out of my way to see another McPherson play.
And Trinity rep rocks. Great theater, well-trained staff, and even with the inevitable opening night hitches occuring (while "A Christmas Carol" was opening the same night, at the same time, in the upstairs theater) things still went smoothly to the visitor's eyes. The set design was almost perfect, the lighting cued perfectly, and the sound was fabulous.
I hung around for a little bit of the post-play discussion, which was very interesting, but decided that discretion was the better part of an hour and a half drive home.
I've ranted on this topic before, but I'm still annoyed this morning so figure it's worth another airing. While the staff at Trinity get high marks, and overall the audience was fabulous -- clearly hardcore theater-goers, most of them subscription holders, wearing work-appropriate or date/dinner clothing -- there was a too-large percentage of people in the audience who clearly thought that old jeans and t-shirts were acceptable attire. Did someone send a memo I missed? Because I wouldn't even go to a grade school play dressed like that, much less the opening night of a quality professional performance.
You dress up to feel good and make it an event, etc etc, sure. But even if you don't care for yourself, you also dress up to RESPECT THE PERFORMANCE, damnit. This ain't tv. You are seen as well as seeing.
/rantlet
and now, I have a copyedit waiting on me - the fun, it never ends here at Chateau Felidae....
