Playing Play Catch-Up

I’ve fallen behind. I really wanted to write about every show I saw on this blog. But tonight I realized that maybe it would be better to just write about the ones that left a strong impression? Since writing about Vassa Zheleznova, I’ve seen: Office at the Pushkin Theatre (really enjoyed it), Mark Morris Dance Company’s Dido and Aeneas, Ivanov and The Cherry Orchard at MXAT, and Troilus and Cressida at the Vakhtangov. But it wasn’t until tonight that I really felt inspired.

I think from the moment I sat down in The Best Seat Ever I knew it was going to be a good night. No joke, there were a few tears of joy in my eyes. Smack dab in the center of row 7, with nothing but an aisle splitting the rows in half in front of me. NO TALL PEOPLE BLOCKING MY VIEW?!?! Amazing. Even though we all know I’ve perfected the art of putting up with sub-par seating by now, I still appreciate a good view. Okay, enough about my seat. Clearly this was a bigger deal to me than it would be to anyone else.

This may be the first production I’ve seen here where my mind drifted zero times. Not only did I have no problem following the story, for the majority of the production I also appreciated the moment-to-moment…almost as if I knew exactly what they were saying (and since it was Shakespeare, sometimes I think I came close to figuring it out). There was just so much going on in this production that I loved or found intriguing, so excuse me for a little spewing here.

Overall, I admired this production for how it revealed both the pointlessness and stupidity of the Trojan War. I really hated the character Paris; not because he was evil, but because he was like a spoiled little boy who couldn’t see how selfish, trivial, and horrible his actions were for others. In this production, Cressida became a spoil of war in the sense that war spoiled her. She began as a girl, practically a child. She wore a long and clumsy dress with socks and bounded around the stage exuberantly with a mess of frizzy hair. After a very funny scene between her and Troilus where they showed just how middle school they were in their courtship, they go into a makeshift den to get it on. When Cressida emerges, her hair has calmed down and her dress is still white and long, but sleeveless and flowing. After she’s been told they’re forcing her to the Greek side, she changes into a much more feminine lavender dress, with her hair tied back in a sleek bun. In the scene with the Greek warriors where she kisses all of them, she teetered around on pointe shoes. This interpretation showed a Cressida who did what the men asked of her and in the end, became a kind of martyr. There’s honestly a lot more to discuss…but it’s time for bed.