The University of Michigan Department of Theatre & Drama kicks off the year with a compelling and well-acclaimed drama, David Edgar’s “Pentecost”, a play that was originally commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company. The play opened on October 7th.
"Pentecost", courtesy Dept. of Theatre & Drama
The theme for the play seems pretty intriguing. It is set in Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The drama is set in an unused church in an Eastern European country. A museum curator discovers a fresco which she believes may be valuable to restore her country’s image. She has many people vying for its ownership. Meanwhile, a group of refugees from various ethnicities take over the church and hold the historians hostage.The refugees share their woeful tales in their own language and the resulting confusion and interaction among the various characters forms the basis of the play.
Just one unknown foreign language can confuse us. Imagine Bulgarian, Arabic, Polish, Russian, Turkish, Sinhalese and others in the same play. That too without translation. Wow, that would be interesting!
Malcolm Tulip is the director of this challenging drama. It is a tough one as the acting has to be really good to convey what language can’t as surely the audience would not know all the languages! And the theme is significant too in context of multitude of immigrants trying to flee to countries with stable societies.
If you are wondering about the title of the play, it is from the Bible. The Holy Spirit descends over the Apostles and gives them different languages to converse. Surprisngly, the Apostles find that they can still understand each other and language is no longer a boundary. A very fit title for this drama indeed!
This will be the last week of the performances! So do catch the show.
Show times: Oct 15,16 @ 8 pm and Oct 17 @ 2 pm at the Arthur Miller Theatre
Does this happen to you? You know that you have forgotten something but don’t now what and you let it remain at the back of your mind.
And then suddenly it comes to you-at the stoplight as you wait for the lights to go green, tapping your fingers on the steering wheel impatiently and hear the bells in the bell tower nearby chime “500 miles away from home!”
Eureka! Oh, yeah, of course I forgot to post the review for Rosanne Cash’s performance at the Hill Auditorium! Now, how did that happen? Well, I do have to tell you about the first show for the UMS for this year at the Hill Auditorium.
Rosanne Cash was here at the Hill auditorium in the not-so-recent past (in today’s world, I believe that anything more than a day old gets archived under “the not-so-recent past” category) performing songs from her album,The List. The songs were from a list of 100 that her father Johnny Cash gave her when she was 18 so that she could learn what he considered to be “the essential songs that every country singer must know.”
Rosanne Cash
I loved the way the stage was set. We had the guitarists, the pianist, the fiddler and the drummer all neatly spread out with screens in ths backdrop. Paintings and drawings of exotic birds, flowers and patterns (they seemed amateurish but very colorful) were projected onto the screens and they were interesting. My friend and I tried to make connections between the songs and the paintings. Unless someone would deem to correct me, I guess the projections were just random and nice distractions.
Miss Cash walked in to big applause and started off on a great song, William Heagney’s “miss the mississippi and you”. What struck me first as I listened to her live was that her voice was very different. Neither too melodic nor too shrill, it seemed to have something very unique. I felt that her voice wasn’t suited to all the songs. But her rendition of “she’s got you”, “500 miles” and ” miss the mississippi and you” was really very pleasant.
The song “500 miles” was my favorite. Ms Cash sang it more slowly than the Hedy West’s original and it was even more moving. The pace of West’s version made it rushed and it feels as if the railroader was resigned to his fate and so he shrugs it off in a matter-of-fact manner with this song. Cash, on the other hand, made it more like a lament and hence there was more pathos in it leaving room for even more empathy from the listener. There is a Hindi song with this very same tune (the slow version) that I have loved for years and I was surprised and sad to find that it had been, to put it euphemistically, “inspired by” 500 miles! Well, I will leave that matter at that. <shrug>
Ms.Cash’s songs were from a vide variety of genres that included folk, blues, pop and rock. I loved her band. They were superb and made her shine. Especially when it came to them doing their lil solo improvisations, they were awesome! I loved the lead guitarist, John Leventhal, Ms.Cash’s husband, who would not be out of place in a rock band as he was so full of energy and really good.
That she gave two encores and the audience was still clamoring for more, goes to show her popularity. Would I listen to her? Hmm…yes, to some of her songs. I think her voice is something that grows on you and is more like a cultivated taste. As for her song choice from the list of 100, it is really good. That she chooses to “rerelease” these songs to introduce them to new generations is commendable.
Overall, it was a very pleasant evening. And thanks to the bells chiming “500 miles away from home” at noon in Kerry Town for reminding me about what I had forgotten.
more than 500 miles (8549 to be exact) from home ,
Paul Taylor is a name that is revered in American contemporary dance. He has done over 130 dances and is known for his lively, creative and powerful choreography. This week, the Paul Taylor Dance Company is in Ann Arbor. This will be a visual treat as the dancers are known for their athletic and powerful performances on a variety of subjects. There are 3 shows and each one of the shows offer something very unique.
Paul Taylor Dance Company
The program for friday has Taylor’s version of the well-acclaimed “Orbs” and another recent dance called “Also playing”. This latter dance is set to Donizetti ballet music and has an element of humor to it.
The legendary Paul Taylor
For saturday, we have the sizzling “Piazzolla Caldera” and a couple of other lovely pieces from Taylor’s vast repertoire.
When something new is tried for the first time, there are many expectations. And since in today’s world, it takes a lot to even make us look- let alone sit in one place for more than a hour, playwrights have to resort to a lot of tricks. But sometimes, as a playwright, you just have to stick to the old but time-tested plots to live up to expectations. This was proved when I went to see David Leddy’s “Susurrus” at the Matthaei Botanical Gardens.
This part radio, part “guide to opera”, part “101 to bird dissection”, part “best way to get you outside” play was one without actors or a stage. Set in the ever beautiful (yet surprisingly still verdant- for this time of the year that is) Matthaei botanical gardens, this play was quite novel in many ways- the use of technology, the use of a sprawling garden as a set, the creative use of different themes supporting the main plot,etc.
The play is about a family and there are four actors – four “voices” in your iPod who guide you through the garden ( you are also given a map). Supposedly, as you plod along the trails, the plot and the location blend to give you an unforgettable experience. So how can this fail? There are four elements involved here- the location, the techonology, the plot of the play and you, the audience.
Let’s take the location. I went on a day when the temperature was in the nippy 68-70 F and there was a balmy breeze and you could hear the susurrus of the stream as well as in the trees! It was an azul sky with a very benevolent sun. So location was perfect!
As for the technology, I had no trouble using the map and syncing the “track” on the iPod Shuffle to the directed location as it was all spelt out very well. And as for the audience, I was fed and watered and I had gone there with a very good friend! So you couldn’t have asked for a more attentive or contented audience.
And the plot? That’s where things went wrong! The play is about a family but about a dysfunctional one! It was dark and completely disturbing. Suicide, sexual abuse by a parent,the blissful obliviousness of the other parent to the behavior of the first parent, disconnected and confused characters – I found it to be perverted and extremely dark for my liking. Agreed that I wasn’t looking for a Disney version of a play just because it was set in a gorgeous location, but this was not what I had expected either.The scenic setting or the novel use of technology had no connection to what I deem a really blotchy plot.
References to Shakespeare’ s “A midsummer’s night dream” were perverted. Oberon and Titania fighting over the Indian boy for totally the wrong reasons!!! Well, I don’t know. This is not what I think a “new” look is!
As a saving grace, the story was suspenseful in the sense that you wanted to know what was going on and what had happened to the main character. And the operatic fillers in between were very pleasant. That part was cleverly done .
While I certainly don’t recommend looking at the world with rose-colored lenses, I don’t want to take a microscope to its weird and disturbing behavior either and I certainly don’t want to be thinking of dysfunctional families with members with suicidal tendencies in a serenely calm environment like at the gardens.(Look at this bloom that I photographed at the gardens that day- who wants to think of suicide or crazy bird dissections?)
Lovely bloom that I caught at the Matthaei Botanical Gardens during "Susurrus"
Portraying dark and such depressing themes in an effort to shock the audience into acceptance of the novelty is not the way to go. The play would have been so so tedious were it just set in a normal set!
Till the end, I could not understand the necessity for the “garden” as a stage and I felt that the play had no connection whatsoever. Was the susurrus of the trees and the stream supposed to calm you down as you listened to this weird stuff? Sometimes, even “special effects and new technology” are no substitute for a good plain old solid script!
To misquote from the play,”Sorry, I will not be thinking of you!”.
First time I became a big fan of Johnny Cash’s (and of course June’s) music was after seeing “Walk the line”. I still love the song “walk the line” a lot! And so when I heard that Rosanne Cash is going to be performing at the Hill Auditorium tonight, I was thrilled.
Rosanne Cash
Rosanne Cash’s “The List” is from the list of essential country songs that her father felt she must know to be a country music singer. She picked from that list and rendered her own unique view to the songs to come up with her own list. Today’s program is a mix of songs from the Appalachian traditions, the early country songs, the Southern gospel, delta blues as well as what is considered today’s country music. In short, it promises to be a nice way to review the old sounds that became a part of what all America is.
Tickets @ the door , tonight 8 pm at the Hill auditorium.
What better way to kickstart another lovely school year than by “participating” a truly novel concept for theatre – David Leddy’s Susurrus. This play is literally a walk around the park! Using the lovely landscape of the Matthaei Botanical Gardens as well as the latest technology, David Leddy’s play involves the audience in the fullest possible way imaginable in a theatrical set up.
David Leddy's Susurrus
You are given an ipod shuffle and and a map and asked to “watch” the play. You listen to a track and the actors “walk you through” the gardens and a suspenseful story (with adult themes) unfolds. Excerpts from operas, some soothing music for the transition between tracks, references to Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” are all part of the play.
This is a great way to explore the Botanical Gardens in the nice nippy Fall weather as well as enjoy something truly novel.
Student tickets at $10 and show times Weds 9/29-Fri 10/1: 3:30 pm to 5:15 pm
Sat 10/2-Sun 10/3: 11:00 am to 5:15 pm.
