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twelfth night There are days when I am my own worst enemy and today was one of them. After having a good night at work preceded by eight solid hours of sleep, I decided to do a few errands before I went to bed. My first chore of the morning was making my way over to the laundromat, which went fine. I quietly read James Salter's Dusk and Other Stories as the machines did their thing to my clothes. Somewhere I had read that Salter had a writing style similar to Hemingway so I had to take a look for myself. Whoever said that was right. The declarative sentence structure with subtle undercurrents that I love so much is there. The language isn't overblown, but has such enormous emotional impact on me. Each story is filled with stark imagery that makes Europe seem like the place to be. Then again I still buy heavily into the concept of the American expatriate living in 1920's Europe just living life. It was my second chore for the day that caused me problems. I wanted to go downtown to make sure that I knew where I was going to see the play. I had been there a year ago, but someone had driven so I didn't really pay that much attention to where we were going. I had the address written down, but finding it took much longer than I had expected. Now Milwaukee is not a large city, but it still manages to have a crowded compact downtown district and I ended up circling parts of it for close to an hour. In my defense I should mention that my decision making skills start to deteriorate once I start to get tired. By the time that I finally fell asleep it was three in the afternoon, which is not something that I like to do. In the end I guess my afternoon trip was worth the effort, because I made it to the theater within ten minutes when I went at night. I decided to go with a balcony seat this year and I like it. Not only do I have an unobstructed view, but the musicians are at eye level to me above the stage. I can also kick back in jeans and not care what anyone else might think, because I don't have to cross through the crowd to get to my seat. This time however I got dressed up for the evening. Next I'll go a little more casual. None of this should really matter, since I saw someone in the front row wearing a Hard Rock Cafe tee shirt. With Shakespeare so much of the production is open to personal interpretation, which means that costuming and staging is different for each director. This play was no exception with an interesting blend of modern and period clothing. Viola, Sebastian and Antonio wore nineteen forties style clothing while the rest of the cast wore Elizbethan era clothing. The only other exception was Feste, who wore everyday modern clothes. He was dressed in khaki pants and a Shaker knit sweater straight from either J Crew or the Gap. The one part of the staging that was unique to me was the stage crew that milled around on the balcony by the musicians. The small group would lounge in vogue poses while the action took place down below. Every so often I would glance over at them to see if any of them had changed positions as they gazed downward. It was a good performance with Viola being played by the same actress who l saw last year as Laura in The Glass Menagerie. She appealed to me then and she still does now. Something about having a small group of people milling about in front of me spouting odd dialogue is so much more exciting than seeing a movie. The only downside is that I don't get to see another play until the end of next month.
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