Thousandth Night
Jul. 12th, 2007 12:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
furtechLast Sunday I had the pleasure of seeing Carol Wolf's Thousandth Night. Two of my theater friends and their daughter and I caught the show at Burbank's Colony Theater.
Admittedly, I'm not an unbiased observer: Carol is the SO of longtime friend,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
iisaw. I'm always nervous at watching/reading/reviewing the works of friends: I'm a terrible liar and not every creation born of love and passion and plain hard work results in a wonderful experience.
The premise is simple: an actor, being deported from Paris (to a detention camp) by the Germans during WWII, attempts to convince a local police office that his deportation was a mistake. He does this in the only way he knows: showing them how harmless and innocent his work is by performing them for his precinct audience.
At first, I was somewhat put-off by the performance of the one-man cast: it felt like the performance of an actor trying too hard to please their audience. The character seems like a likeable, but shallow person. Over the course of the play the character lets out small (sometimes almost unnoticed) pieces of his background and those of the people (other actors) he performed with.
About a quarter of the way into the performance, something clicked and I realized that, of course he was trying too hard-- he's literally giving the performance of (or for) his life! There is much interaction with the audience (passively playing the role of the gendarmes) and the actor (Ron Campbell) is amazing as he plays the roles of all the characters of the most memorable of Shaharazad's "One Thousand and One Arabian Nights".
As the play continued to conclusion, I realized how perfected this script and performance was: we (the audience) are drawn into this character's world. The ending becomes as clear as the light at the end of a train tunnel, or (to continue with the trains) his fate is as determined and inevitable as if he were still on that train.
Amazing piece of work, Carol! Thank you so much for the opportunity to see this play! I look forward to talking to you about the process of this script: how much was written, how much Ron Campbell improvised, how you "engineered" the whole play.
This is only playing through the current weekend, but if you have any time at all (and are in the area) I -highly- recommend this show, particularly any theater afficiondos!
Admittedly, I'm not an unbiased observer: Carol is the SO of longtime friend,
iisaw. I'm always nervous at watching/reading/reviewing the works of friends: I'm a terrible liar and not every creation born of love and passion and plain hard work results in a wonderful experience.The premise is simple: an actor, being deported from Paris (to a detention camp) by the Germans during WWII, attempts to convince a local police office that his deportation was a mistake. He does this in the only way he knows: showing them how harmless and innocent his work is by performing them for his precinct audience.
At first, I was somewhat put-off by the performance of the one-man cast: it felt like the performance of an actor trying too hard to please their audience. The character seems like a likeable, but shallow person. Over the course of the play the character lets out small (sometimes almost unnoticed) pieces of his background and those of the people (other actors) he performed with.
About a quarter of the way into the performance, something clicked and I realized that, of course he was trying too hard-- he's literally giving the performance of (or for) his life! There is much interaction with the audience (passively playing the role of the gendarmes) and the actor (Ron Campbell) is amazing as he plays the roles of all the characters of the most memorable of Shaharazad's "One Thousand and One Arabian Nights".
As the play continued to conclusion, I realized how perfected this script and performance was: we (the audience) are drawn into this character's world. The ending becomes as clear as the light at the end of a train tunnel, or (to continue with the trains) his fate is as determined and inevitable as if he were still on that train.
Amazing piece of work, Carol! Thank you so much for the opportunity to see this play! I look forward to talking to you about the process of this script: how much was written, how much Ron Campbell improvised, how you "engineered" the whole play.
This is only playing through the current weekend, but if you have any time at all (and are in the area) I -highly- recommend this show, particularly any theater afficiondos!
