Othello

So, last night I headed down to the Shakespeare Theater to see a National Theater Live broadcast of Othello. (NT Live is the program where plays from the British National Theater are broadcast via satellite all over the world—oh, beautiful technology!—and it's how I saw the amazing production of Frankenstein last year which Kris and Lex and I will be seeing again in January.)

This production was unreal, it was so good. Adrian Lester was heartbreaking in the title role, but it was Rory Kinnear as Iago who really stole the show. I mean, Iago is a scene-stealer of a character to start with, but Rory Kinnear is unparalleled. I was hanging on his every word, and feeling hideous about it because Iago is so evil.

"Look into my eeevil eyes."

I enjoyed it so much that I bought a ticket for the encore showing next week. I hope I can stand that much heartbreak in a two-week span.

Exit, pursued by a bear.

So, last night my friend and I went to see The Winter's Tale at the National Shakespeare Theater. This is one of Shakespeare's odder plays, starting out with three acts of high drama and heartbreak, then whipping us into scenes of mirth and merriment and downright silliness, and then back to heartbreaking drama. It's also the play containing his most famous and strangest stage direction: "Exit, pursued by a bear." And yes, there was a bear. I think that was the indication that we were entering the silliness section of the play.

Despite the emotional whiplash, it was really good and beautifully performed. It also had gorgeous original music performed by troubadours onstage.

The actor playing King Leontes also plays Dr. Gablehauser, Sheldon's boss on Big Bang Theory, and my friend kept saying things like, "I noticed when Dr. Gablehauser accused his wife of adultery..."

Ooh, also, before the show we went to Luke's for lobster rolls and now I'm dreaming of having those for every meal.

Every. Single. Meal.

Cherry Blossoms

So, what has been going on with me this last month? Work, work, work. Also, the DC spring allergy season hit me so hard, I'm wondering how much more pseudoephedrine I can put into my body without testing positive for meth.

One good thing about DC in the spring? The cherry blossoms.
So. Very. Lovely. They were a gift from the Japanese government in 1912. Did you know some were planted in Manhattan, too?

I went down this past weekend, when the Park Service predicted the trees would be at their peak, but the cold nights kept them as buds, and I felt very bad for all the tourists who had traveled so far to see them. However, even the buds are gorgeous. They're a deep pink color and lovely to see.

The biggest crop of trees were planted around the gorgeous Tidal Basin.

They were even pinker in real life.

There were a few trees here and there
that were blooming among the buds.

There were also entertainments,
such as this delightful Indian dance troupe.

I went down again yesterday to see the trees in full bloom. They are really impressive.

 

Quite a difference, eh?

 

I stopped at this bridge to set down my bag and change lenses.
That was when my 55-200 mm lens almost went straight into
the drink. It slipped out of my hands and began to roll into the
Tidal Basin. I caught it just in time and all I could think was
how Kristen is always so appalled at my lack of care with my lenses.

The Jefferson Memorial is my favorite, and so beautifully situated.

Did you know this? Very cool.

I've never seen so many cameras in one place. Everywhere you
looked, people were under the canopy of blooms, snapping away
with everything from iPhones to professional cameras on tripods.

Some of the trees were still very pink
and looked gorgeous next to the fluffy, whiter trees.

This city has never looked so good!

DC theater, baby!

So, I’ve been hitting the DC theater scene pretty hard lately. Here are a few things I saw this month.

Les Liaisons Dangereuses

This was a French production of the famous play, directed by John Malcovich. They were a smash in Paris and now they’re on a world tour and the only place they stopped in North America was DC, so of course I had to go. Alas, I did not get a glimpse of Mr. Malcovich, but I’m sure I’d have dorked out on him anyway. I never know what to say to famous people. (Oh, except, “Casablanca.”)

The play was performed in French with English surtitles (a screen across the top of the stage translated the dialogue.) I noticed that sometimes the translation appeared on the screen before the actor delivered the line, and I wonder if it was difficult for the actors to have the audience reacting to their lines before they had spoken them.

What really helped was that I know the dialogue from the movie Dangerous Liaisons almost completely (because of course I do), and since that film was based on this play, it was almost exactly the same. It helped to be able to concentrate more on the action of the play than the surtitle screen. The production was fantastic and I'll never be afraid to go to a surtitled play in the future.

The Last of the Haussmans

This is the third National Theater Live production I’ve seen. I didn’t like it as well as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, which had the coolest stage (an electronic floor that let them transform from a bedroom to a neighborhood to a moving train to a Tube station—oh it was so cool) and nothing will ever come close to Frankenstein, but this play was really delightful.

The cast was amazing: Julie Walters (who is a national treasure), Rory Kinnear (who I would watch read the phone book), and Helen McCrory (who is lucky enough to be married to the most handsome redhead on the planet and who is, I’m pretty sure, aging backward like Benjamin Button). They were all wonderful, but I want to say this now so I can get it on the record: Taron Egerton. Remember that name. He’s something special. He just has this certain quality that shines out and I can’t wait to see what he does next.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

This is one of the National Shakespeare Company’s performances and it is astounding. I saw it a couple weeks ago and I was so delighted that I bought another ticket and saw it again last night. And there was a Q&A with the cast afterward that was really interesting.

It was hilarious and delightful and every good adjective. The guy playing Puck was beyond wonderful. He completely stole the show, even more than Puck usually steals it. And there was even a mud fight. Oh yes, a mud fight. 

 Clearly this was awesome.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Stoker.

In honor of Bram Stoker’s 165^th birthday today (thank you, Google) I am going to tell you about the ballet of Dracula that I recently saw at the Kennedy Center. It was melodramatic, tremendously creepy, and full of fake blood. Blood!

In the interest of full disclosure, I have to say the scariest things in the ballet were Van Helsing’s eyebrows. I was convinced they were going to crawl off the stage and come for me, just before exiting the Kennedy Center and going on to wreak havoc in the Capital. They pulled focus, is what I’m saying. I wish I could find a photo because they were truly something to behold.

This ballet was danced by the Washington Ballet. About a week before that I saw a Russian company dance Cinderella and they used minimal sets and simple costumes, probably to set off the exquisite dancing. Dracula was the complete opposite for sets and costumes. The dancing was wonderful, but it was accompanied by crumbling castles, dank crypts, and dry ice fog rolling across the stage. It’s Dracula; it has to be at least a little campy.

Dracula catches his first glimpse of Mina in Jonathan Harker's photo.

Jonathan and the three vampires who try to devour him. Gah!

Jonathan's nightmare about his wedding to Mina.

Dracula turns Lucy into a creature of the night.

Renfield is sacrificed as vampire Lucy and Mina look on.

It was supremely creepy. There were wolves lurking in the shadows, bloody corpses crawling out of coffins (which gave me fear flashbacks to when I first watched the Thriller video at age 6), and people were getting bitten all over the place. The neck biting really creeps me out.

Tell me this does not creep you out!

In one scene, when Dracula is trying to turn Mina into a vampire, he takes his fingernail and slices open his bare chest so she can drink his blood. It looked incredibly real from the first row and I concentrated on breathing deeply and not vomiting. Vomiting at the Kennedy Center is just not the thing.

Super creepy, super fun. I like to think Mr. Stoker would have been pleased.

David Sedaris!

Last night I had the pleasure of attending a reading by David Sedaris, one of my favorite living authors. I’ve seen him read live before, and I will take every opportunity I ever have of seeing him read live again. Before the show, he walked right past me in the lobby and it was all I could do to stop myself from throwing my arms around him and telling him that I wanted to wrap him up and put him in my pocket. Better to be escorted out by security after the reading, I thought.

If you’re not familiar with his work, go now, run, and download any and all episodes of This American Life that he’s contributed to. Then go and get some of his audiobooks. Normally, I would suggest the print version, but there’s nothing quite like listening to David Sedaris read his own work (see also: David Rakoff, Tina Fey, and Mindy Kaling). His cadence and delivery will have you in tears of laughter, just as I was last night.

This is a good one, too. His live recordings are the best.

I managed to snag a front row ticket and was seated about ten feet away, which was awesome. Mr. Sedaris read some essays from his upcoming book, Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls, the title of which is taken from a tale of an excruciating conversation in Greek by the author, who speaks very poor Greek. He also read a few of his diary entries. I love when he does this. He regaled us with the story of telling a Willie Nelson joke to a ticketing agent at the airport and it had me laughing so hard, I started to feel dizzy. I thought  "Oh, if I pass out and fall out of my chair, that will be so embarrassing."

On every book tour, David Sedaris recommends a book to the audience. This time he told us to read The Bill From My Father, by Bernard Cooper (and also everything else by Bernard Cooper). He said from a writing standpoint this book is especially interesting because it’s filled with lots of page-and-a-half essays. David loves this because a 1½-page essay is far more difficult to write than a ten-page essay, and every word in the book is so carefully chosen, but not in a way that makes it precious. He then declared that he will never write anything as fine as Bernard Cooper’s work, which is about the greatest compliment I can imagine receiving from David Sedaris. I immediately put all of Cooper’s works on my reading list.

And then I drove home, chuckling about Willie Nelson all the way.