Translations

I just got back from seeing Translations, the Brian Friel play about Ireland that's currently on bway. It's a thickly intellectual play, but once you get past all of the latin and greek and the thick accents, it's really quite good.

It really makes you think, though. The british completely devastated Ireland. One of my favorite things was the part at the end, where Hugh, the teacher, starts quoting that passage about the Punic Wars, because it really is so true. I also found it shocking how the Irish were so much more educated than the British, and yet the British ran everything because they had money and power.

It was hard to understand, and my mind was racing the entire time, trying to keep up and understand it. I do like intellectual plays, though, and it was really very interesting.

One of my favorite things was watching the confusion between the people speaking English and the people who were supposed to be speaking Gaelic. It was both funny and true to the communication gap.

The set was gorgeous. It was a dirt floor, with a rickety old staircase and some stools and a giant door. What was really amazing was how they did the rain. It was real water and heard and looked exactly like rain. It was also great how the people came in soaking, just like they would be if they had just come in from the rain.

Overall, it was a very interesting play, and if you are in the mood for a deeply intellectual experience, you should definitely go see it.

A Chorus Line

I went to see A Chorus Line last night. It was really quite good. There were a few things I had some problems with, but overall it was wonderful.

The thing that really bothered me is that a lot of the people really couldn't sing. Diana and Maggie could sing, but Cassie, who has the biggest solo, couldn't. It was really annoying, because the song was right over her voice break, and at the beginning, she wasn't belting, so it would just switch between her chest voice and her head voice, which was really bad in the first place, and it sounded terrible. And then when she started to belt, it was really grating and even more nasal than belts usually are.

One of the great things was that everyone could dance, and I mean really dance. Some of the best dancers were Paul, Cassie, and basically everyone.

My favorite people in it were Diana (Moralis), because she could sing, dance, act, and she was spunky and fun. We saw an understudy, but she was still amazing. She was really great. Paul was also amazing. He couldn't really sing, but he could really act and boy could he DANCE. He was an amazing dancer and it was really great just to watch him. Sheila was also hilarious and had a great stage presence.

I like how they did the set, completely bare except for a line on the floor, and sometimes with mirrors on the walls, because it felt like a real dance studio.

Overall, it was a really fun show, and I would definitely suggest seeing it if you get the chance.