Today I went to a matinee of In A Forest Dark And Deep by Neil Labute at Vaudeville Theatre.
To be perfectly honest, the only reason I went was because Jack from LOST (Matthew Fox) was in it. So it was a little geek/fan moment for me. Wanted to experience 'Jackface' up close...
The actors (Olivia Williams was the woman) were strong, but there was a lot of yelling (Philippe would have killed both actors very quickly!) and the performance felt pretty phoned in.
Unfortunately the play was boring. Just 'bla bla bla theatre'. A brother and sister with issues - stuck in a cottage for a night - they deal with their issues. The script was predictable and extreme/melodramatic. I'm okay with that. But it felt forced. And I don't really care about the characters and their problems, and if I don't feel sorry for them by the end of the play then the whole thing doesn't really work.
I liked the staging: A tall triangular-roofed cottage, in which we can see two stories. The roof flashed with lightning at times which was a very cool lighting effect. And they made it seem real outside the house - when Fox opens the back door we see rain and think he really could walk out into the forest.
The below photos give you a good idea of the angst in the play (there's a lot of it):
This production really felt like a producer's money making venture and not much else. Hey producer! It would be much better on TV...so why put this on stage?
~
Tonight I went to Sex Idiot at Soho Theatre.
It was genius! I loved it!
Performance artist Bryony Kimmings takes us on a journey of discovery...to find out who gave her an STD.
It was full of little songs and contemporary dances and stories of all her previous sexual experiences, and what it was like when she contacted them to find out if they gave her the STD.
I totally fell in love with Kimmings. She was wacky and quirky and utterly charming. Even with her STD, I'd have sex with her!
This was a song about all the different names you can use for vagina. 'James Blunt' was a new one...
In one moment she needed to cry...so she got Tiger Balm and spread it under her eyes, and then waved a fan furiously into her eyes whilst keeping them as wide open as possible...
Various funky outfits. She was naked under this one. And before she got into it, she sat on my knee (I was in the front row) and got me to undo her bra. What an honour!
For one song she passed around a few bottles of whiskey, some scissors, and a cup. She then encouraged those that were willing to take a swig of whiskey (to loosen up, of course) and to cut some of their pubic hair off with the scissors (she showed us a crafty discreet way) and put it in the cup. I did it...
And then after she'd done this, she told us that over all the time she's been performing this show she's never washed the cup or scissors or whisky bottles...and warned us to be more careful!
THEN she got double-sided tape and made a pubic-hair moustache...
It was necessary! The song was about a boyfriend who had a moustache.
Bashing her face with a bunch of flowers...
A brilliant show. Fun, silly, imaginative, distinctly Kimmings, crazy, honest, beautiful. I want to see her next show now! Apparently she's spending a week in the rehearsing room completely drunk, and then performing what she's made, sober. Fucking cool.
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