Angela L. Das

I’m impressed with the hold Harry Potter has on movie audiences. Last night as I walked out of the theatre, I noticed a lot of tired faces. This was not a movie with a clear beginning, middle and end. This was not a feel-good movie either. Or a Christmas movie, although in years to come I’m sure it will turn into an annual December-time marathon in my household. This is a “middle arch movie”, to fill in the story for people who have not read the books. What I think audiences are hungry for now, is the finish. The end of Harry Potter’s story, with the closure that entails, has yet to be delivered. Last night, the audience’s reactions reminded me of the Greeks who would travel miles to experience the catharsis of the epic journey of a hero once a year.

(more…)

In high school, being a self-proclaimed progressive and
serious drama student, I was in an Artaudian production of
Macbeth. The director, on facing the difficult decision of who
to cast as whom using a class of 12 egomaniacal teenage
females, cast all of us as witches, and all of us employed the
Theatre of Cruelty style to “enact” the story of Macbeth: A
complicated theory, not easily grasped by our audiences at the
time, and even more difficult still to explain ten years on.
Last Saturday, I returned to the play and learned how it
really should be done.

(more…)

The Kiss - Francesco Hayez

After my virgin expedition into the Los Angeles theatre scene on Valentine’s Day, I went to see Romeo and Juliet at The Met Theater, downtown. After spending years seeing Shakespeare  “adapted for a modern audience” (completely unnecessarily), I was  relieved this was intended to be more traditional. That’s what made me jump at these tickets in the first place, and I wasn’t disappointed.

I’m a student of literature and therefore pretty fussy when it comes to hearing it performed. Juliet (Megan Goodchild) was lovely, and Romeo (Frederik Hamel) was suitably Mark-Hamilton-in-Star-Wars to my liking, to convey the utter teenage madness and angst the characters must have gone through to be so in love at the age of 13. (more…)