The plays the thing
Since I 1) am a theatre professional, and 2) did not graduate from a theatrical program, I have decided I should see all the theatre available to myself. I also hope to see a variety, not only for the purposes of being “well-rounded” in my tastes, but to help combat a sad trend I have noticed. I have read and heard anecdotal evidence that the flash speed of modern life has shortened the attention span of the populous. Now not only are there cell phones, facebook, and email, we can now update our lives via twitter from our blackberries. If you cannot get your message across a headline, and 2 sentences you should probably not bother.
Its sickening…and I feel myself succumbing.
Thus I hope a healthy regiment of live theatre of some merit along with books, yes actual books. I can teach myself to pay attention again.
To this end, I went and saw a classic tonight, Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance. It is not a short play: 2:50 with 2 15 minute intermissions. It tells the story of human relationships and the longing for something…anything set in a lovely WASP-y community. While not as high on my Required-Reading-for-Life List as T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, I will highly recommend it.
Each character cocoons themselves in a different way. Each defense the same, each enemy the same, and, ultimately, each result the same. I cannot do it justice in this medium, so I suggest you head to your nearest library and check it out.