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"Alas, poor Marley. I knew him well."
Dec. 19th, 2005 08:38 amInternet issues (now, I think, resolved) kept me from posting this before, but on Saturday night, we went to see "Something Dickens This Way Comes." The idea was to retell A Christmas Carol - only with three people, minimal setting, and heavily larded with Shakespeare quotes.
The end result was a lot of fun (probably the only time people will whoop with laughter at much of Hamlet) and terribly, terribly silly. Some parts were seamless, such as portioning out the characters via the Rude Mechanicals scene from Midsummer. ("What doth the Ghost of Christmas Future do?" "He points." "Oh, let me take the role! I shall point so that the ladies shall cry 'Let him point again!'") And all the ghost bits from Hamlet merged in quite nicely.
Some were labored - the petitioner asking Scrooge for charitable money didn't need to do the whole "quality of mercy" speech. And some were outright clunky - the answer to "Some would rather die than go [to the poorhouse]" really needn't have been both the "surplus population" line *and* the entire "to be or not to be" monologue.
But these shadows did not offend; on the whole it was a zany bit of fun suitable for rennies who miss Shakespeare Scum and Shakespeare buffs looking for a giggle.
On the way back we stopped by the Miracle on 34th Street; a single block in this northern Baltimore suburb (on 34th St., natch) that fancies itself up as a miracle of overdone Christmas lights. Some were tasteful, most were not, all was merry and bright.
We also shopped a bit up and down the main drag - laughed a lot at the contents of the Atomic Bookstore ("Literary finds for mutated minds") and had an excellent meal in Susan's Soba and sundaes in the place next door, as Cafe Hun took S's cell phone number, promised to call within the hour, and never did.
An excellent night out, and I'll be keeping an eye on the Balt. Shakes. Society in the future.
The end result was a lot of fun (probably the only time people will whoop with laughter at much of Hamlet) and terribly, terribly silly. Some parts were seamless, such as portioning out the characters via the Rude Mechanicals scene from Midsummer. ("What doth the Ghost of Christmas Future do?" "He points." "Oh, let me take the role! I shall point so that the ladies shall cry 'Let him point again!'") And all the ghost bits from Hamlet merged in quite nicely.
Some were labored - the petitioner asking Scrooge for charitable money didn't need to do the whole "quality of mercy" speech. And some were outright clunky - the answer to "Some would rather die than go [to the poorhouse]" really needn't have been both the "surplus population" line *and* the entire "to be or not to be" monologue.
But these shadows did not offend; on the whole it was a zany bit of fun suitable for rennies who miss Shakespeare Scum and Shakespeare buffs looking for a giggle.
On the way back we stopped by the Miracle on 34th Street; a single block in this northern Baltimore suburb (on 34th St., natch) that fancies itself up as a miracle of overdone Christmas lights. Some were tasteful, most were not, all was merry and bright.
We also shopped a bit up and down the main drag - laughed a lot at the contents of the Atomic Bookstore ("Literary finds for mutated minds") and had an excellent meal in Susan's Soba and sundaes in the place next door, as Cafe Hun took S's cell phone number, promised to call within the hour, and never did.
An excellent night out, and I'll be keeping an eye on the Balt. Shakes. Society in the future.
