I hated it. I felt insulted. The jokes weren't funny. I was sitting in a theatre full of school students and I swear the only reason they were laughing was because they were on a school trip and the play that their school had decided to take them to was one that had lots of F-bombs and talked about sex. I have never wanted to leave a theatre more. And thats what we did. My family and I left at interval because we couldn't stand to sit through another hour of this ridiculous 'comedy' about this great historical figure. And, for me to walk out of a play is a huge thing. Theatre is one of my favourite things in the world and I left when I hadn't been to a play or performance for over two weeks (which is a really, really, really long time) and was really excited about this one. I left. It killed me but I think I made the right choice. Watching this felt a little like I was repeatedly bashing my head against a wall and slowly poking out my eyes just because I realised that I could. How ridiculously fun does that sound?
The whole way through I just felt agitated and could not comfortably relax into the play and lose myself in the story and the characters. When that happens, you don't even realise that you are sitting in a dark for 2 or more hours because you (well, I) get totally emersed. It seemed like the play didn't quite fit together. It seemed like the actors weren't even comfortable with it. It was like Dario Fo has written this play just to write it. I don't think he tried at all to make it any good. Just wanted to push people to their limits of how much crap one person can watch. Maybe it was a test to see how many people actually sit through the whole thing. A test of character that I seem to have failed. I couldn't do it. It was a kind of torture sitting through it. I haven't seen any of Dario Fo's other plays so maybe I should have been prepared or something but I thoroughly believed that someone who has won a Nobel prize would be capable of more than this, whatever this play was. Maybe this guy does try to challenge society and the norms and everything but I don't understand why the Queensland Theatre Compnay chose to do it. Normally they choose such good plays and do them so well but this... I just don't understand. |
| (Dario Fo; playwright) |
But hang on, nothing in the play offended me, well maybe that's not a good way to put it because I was offended by the awfullness of it, the shear disregard for logic and good writing or structure. Just making things dirty or vulgar doesn't make it funny. There is a time and a place. For me, there is nothing all that funny about a smutty queen who pisses herself on stage. I am all for someone trying to discover the insecurities of the famous (My Week With Marilyn does that pretty well) or writing a fictional piece about their private life and sure, make it a comedy and show the Queen in a completely different light that people aren't used to but this was just a mockery of everything, including the audience. Nothing challenged my perceptions of the world. The content wasn't shocking for me, it was just that it was out of place and I hated it. Apparently a lot of people like your work Dario Fo, but I do not. I am sorry.
I don't even want to go into what the play is about. It's not even about anything.
In the final day of her life, an ailing Elizabeth I clings desperately to her throne and her sanity. It has been eleven days since she last slept, and she rightly fears that if she allows herself to bed she may not rise again. (http://www.queenslandtheatre.com.au/what-is-on/mainstage/elizabeth/)It pretends to have a plot but it doesn't really. They are just lying to you. It's a whole bunch of nothing crammed into 2 and whatever hours. And the characters, well there is Queen Elizabeth and then some randoms.
Maybe I didn't like it because I was expecting something totally different. Some awesome play based on this historic great that maybe tried to shed some light on her life as the virgin queen and ruler of England and it's vast empire. Explore her deteriorating mind and her relationships with her people, Robert of Essex, and others but this did not happen. Nothing happened.
All right. I have found out what this comedy is called; commedia dell’arte. Apparently it is a form of comedic theatre meaning "Comedy of Art" or "Comedy of the profession'. It means unwritten or improvised drama, and refers to the manner of performance rather than the subject matter of the play and hails from the 16th Century. Where it should have stayed.
No comments:
Post a Comment