Here's looking at you
I love to discuss theater but feel bad about scathing reviews
Ladies and Gentlemen and groundlings and others:
Played a fun game this week about Shakespeare plays. Very meta.
I saw two plays this week. One was easy to watch but so much was deeply wrong with the production that when I tried to write a review on Medium, four hours later I was still finding flaws in the production, so the review remained unfinished and my brain was left whirling with ever more ridiculous things this play failed to do correctly.
Skip The Apiary at 2nd Stage Theater off-Broadway unless, like me, you love going out afterward and playing the game “can this play be saved.” This show is never boring, but is always just enough askew to annoy you—the script, set, casting, blocking, sound, lighting, and most especially the direction is off just enough that you you get confused - and it makes you want to straighten the picture on the wall….but this production is so deeply damaged that you straighten a painting only to discover that the whole room is off kilter.
(beware: this next paragraph is thick with spoilers)
The actors were terrific though one was on book, having joined the cast two days prior. The set was amazing though bizarrely symbolic (was that why the wings were never used?) and I was perplexed that the entire production was entirely devoid of bees. Why wasn’t there lighting to show that the inside of that space is (supposedly) buzzing constantly? Or a broom at some point to show that there were dead bees? or any direction at all to get the actors to interact with the bees in a good or bad or neutral way? Who put the shroud on the dead body discovered “crawling with bees” in this sterile lab? Why did the bureaucrat throw away the effective plastic flowers that helped the bees thrive but embrace the solicitations of people to feed to the bees? Why did no one think to create a cadaver donation system rather than an early suicide system? Why not just wait for the terminal patients to die? Why was there a questionnaire about health when chemo and cancer didn’t render the volunteers ineligible. Nothing made sense.
Truly the best part of the night was the long conversation after the show as we tried to determine what on earth the playwright had intended. That, and the dancer who played death (but the program just called her “dancer” so half the play we thought she was a bee or a swarm of bees).
The play got a standing ovation. I did not stand and I felt wildly uncomfortable for sitting and applauding. This perfectly embodied the experience of watching the play. I was all set to be nice and everything was just a little wrong.
The other play I saw was Appropriate also produced by 2nd Stage Theater. But wow.
Just wow.
This production was electrifying. It was so good, that when intermission came, everyone looked around like they had been dreaming and didn’t know where they were. After intermission, when the lights began to dim, people eagerly shoved their phones into their pockets and fell collectively silent in anticipation for whatever was going to happen next. After the curtain fell, people barely were able to stand to applaud, they were so spent. But they rose to their feet anyway. Drugged. Insensate. Swaying. Applauding. And desperate to tell other people they had experienced something great. This is what theater should be - beyond words. Beyond liking or disliking - shows should change you.
Writing news:
I’m applying for SFWA membership. I needed three references from current members. No one in the writing industry discusses what memberships they hold, so I sent a lot of emails and got back a lot of apologies. I did get three excellent references: Ben Francisco (I strongly recommend you read his wonderful speculative fiction, top notch! And if you’ve got a kid, check out his YA book, Val Vega Secret Ambassador of Earth!), Randee Dawn whose Rooftop reading series is one of my top top favorites (when it moved from an ice cream shop it rebranded as Brooklyn Books & Booze and is now held at at Barrow’s Intense Ginger Bar in Industry City in Brooklyn—she is also the author of a hilarious fantasy novel that topped the humor fantasy charts. The third reference is (are you sitting down?) David Gerrold. The man’s oeuvre could fill an entire bookstore section.
Well, I mean, if you’re going to get references…
This week, I made available a short story that was published in print in 2014. It is not science fiction but it does contain a chemist and a game as structure. Back when it was originally published, my uncle called me to ask whether my father was doing okay (he didn’t ask if my marriage was doing okay) - and weirdly, at the time that I wrote this story, both were doing just fine! The details about the Scrabble game, I had worked out on my board in my Columbia housing. The details about my father’s life were there because Helen Schulman, my teacher at the time, insisted I include my family in my work. My uncle’s panic over his brother’s health made me realize how dangerous it is to write recognizable characters. I’ve removed the paywall from this link - feel free to read the story and judge for yourselves - I feel like the story is my younger self, sending a get-well-card to me at this age…. See what you think. Here’s The Champion.
Random Final Thought:
Managing expectations through good communication can improve even a mediocre experience:
That was an incredible story!
Terese
you're amazing -