More linketies ~ theatre notes

Friday, June 11, 2010

More linketies

It occurs to me that in the past couple of months I've been doing more criticky stuff in the off-blog world than here, which perhaps accounts for this paradoxical feeling that I'm getting nowhere, while running as fast as I can. I'm not sure what I think about this: of course I have that old-fashioned pleasure at being in print, but it's also one of those odd reversals. While most people think of blogs as the lightweight aside to the main game, I've always thought of my work here as the real deal. Is this a presage of the post-internet, where the glittering pixels get folded back into ink and paper? Who knows?

Anyway, on to business. My Australian review of the MTC's production of Boston Marriage is online today. Readers might also be interested in my earlier review of Hoy Polloy's 2007 production of the same play. At least you can't say that I'm not consistent, even across very different productions. (No, there's no conscious plagiarising of myself there).

Meanwhile, on the plays-as-literature issue, George Hunka is also opining in print in the current issue of the Yale School of Drama's Theatre journal. It is clearly a trending topic in the zeitgeist. He posts an extract at Superfluities Redux.

2 comments:

Miss Ethel Malley said...

Re: Boston Marriage
I absolutely agree with your estimation of the play, Alison. It just seemed an overreaching irrelevance. I couldn't decide who Mamet was actually patronising, but it sure as hell was someone.

What was in it for the MTC? Single set and cast of three, I suppose. Hey, Strindberg wrote those too, and a lot of them are actually funnier than Mamet in the right hands - say Pamela Rabe. An evening wasted. There was more genuine wit in the book of The Drowsy Chaperone, which had gals AND gags.

Alison Croggon said...

I wish somebody would do Strindberg. And you're right, Rabe would be fantastic.