Plaza Inn, Ashland, Oregon May 29, 2011
Sound of the creek past midnight.
Moliere's Le Malade Imaginaire singing in my ears—Oded Gross and Tracy Young's adaptation, that is. Once again, fabulous ensemble work—and I mean the entire cast, not just the song and dance ensemble who came in at key points like the girls in Little Shop...
How remarkable now I think of it, the interaction with the audience, specifically a 25 year old from Grants Pass named Joy Cunningham who works as a teller, facts gleaned in a laid back ho hum Fool's errand into the auditorium sliding along the apron as our main man slept in his wheel chair. Audience members audibly groaned with disapproval as the Fool walked away saying Well, no one could be expected to write a song of beauty with such information, that name, that age, etc.
So how extraordinarily effective and explosive when much later he emerges "cured" by the Scottish doctor (the maid disguised) with a song filly luxuriously with Ms Cunningham's details...extraordinary for its effect but also for its clear connection to the core of the play, in that we are married to our personal perceptions of ourselves (and through that feat of psychic engineering, everyone around us) in sickness and in health—nay, therefore choosing sickness or health as our stance...
A remarkable demonstration. Do you know there is little work of note on the subject of audience?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment