|
anita shreve wrote After work this morning I went shopping for a new vcr. This was probably something that I should have done a while ago, but didn't for one reason or another. For months now I have suspected that my machine was dying a slow death. Tapes wouldn't eject properly and more than one tape had been mangled to some degree. Despite these problems I didn't think that it was worth my while to invest in a new machine. Most if not all of the new films that I bought this year, I bought on dvd so I don't use the vcr that much nor do I rent videos that often. Plus in my effort to keep my budget under control a new vcr was an expense that could be put off to a later date. Well, I guess that that date finally arrived. My six year old if not older machine was put to rest and its replacement took its place in the entertainment center. It seems odd to be investing in what many people would see as old technology. Then again the cost and or ease of recording to a dvd format has yet to make its way to the retail market and I need to the vcr to join all of my components together. ... I didn't know anything about the play tonight except for what the acting company had written about it online. From what I read it seemed as though they had given the entire plot, but that doesn't always give an accurate picture of what I'll see on the stage. One can tell a story and someone else can imagine something completely different than what actually is being described. The most common example would be case whenever a book is transformed into a movie. Escape From Happiness is not what I usually expect from a play. Oh, I know that plays can take many forms, but at the same time I confess that I have a fondness for the classics. For me the stage is Shakespeare and Tennessee Williams with a Steinbeck mixed in here and there. Now that spectrum excludes a great many things, but at the same time those are usually the stories that resonate the most with me. I like plays that have clever dialogue and talk about universal issues. This doesn't mean that I don't enjoy more modern plays, I just like to see the classics when I can. What I am trying to say in a long round about way is that Escape From Happiness was not what I would consider classic drama. Instead what I saw was very modern and had an element of Cops to it, which was not what I was expecting. Oh, there were fantastical parts to the play that kept it in the realm of the theater, but the setting was very urban and working class. The set was a place that I've actually seen in my life. On a far less serious note it was good to see Deborah Staples as a cop. She looked good in the gray sweater, jacket and pants that struck me as very NYPD Blue and or X-Files. It was a good look for her and she played the role well. Performance wise I was also very impressed by the actress who played Gail. |