Michelangelo sibyl from the Sistine Chapel

 

maggie and brick

I made it to the play tonight without any problems. Personally I don't think I could have planned it any better than I did. In fact I timed it just right and went straight to my seat as though I had done it a hundred times before. I was ready to lose myself in a play that I knew almost by heart.

Actually it was odd seeing a play that in my mind had always been a 1950's movie with Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman. Of course the actors also know this and probably have to work against it. So as I sat there I tried not to compare what I saw before me with what I had seen in the movie, but I did anyway. The film version was my first exposure to the play and is not something that I can easily forget.

Even with my preconceived notions of what I thought I might see, I did still enjoy the play. For me Maggie is still the best character in the play no matter who plays her with the character of Big Daddy coming in as a close second. There was however one definite difference between the two versions that I noticed and won't forget. It was the language used in the live version. I don't remember hearing the word poontang coming out of the mouth of Burl Ives.

I did make one mistake though that soured the evening for me. For some reason I panicked at the second intermission. At first I thought that maybe the play was ending slightly different than the movie, then I decided that I didn't have enough time to see what would have been the final act and I cut out early. Once I got to work I wished that I had stayed, because Mike said that he wouldn't have cared if I were late. Oh, well, the next time that I see a play, I'll stay to the end no matter how late I might be in getting to work. For now what is done is done and I can't change it.

Despite having missed the ending, what I saw of the play still put me in an odd mood. Now I know that Tennessee Williams does not write plays about happy people, but something about it struck me as being completely sad. My whole mood changed after I saw the play and it wasn't just because the last scene that I saw was where Big Daddy learns that he does have cancer and that everyone had been lying to him.

I guess that after watching a play for close to three hours, I find it hard to adjust to reality. Everything seems less real for a time or at the very least much more dull. What is ordinary becomes less than ordinary. Suddenly the melodrama is gone and all that I am left with is casual chatter at work.

One more night of work and then I am on vacation for four days.

 
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