Something light

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Since being diagnosed with an unpleasant medical condition, my attitudes have shifted subtly. In just a few weeks, yet!

I don’t think I need any philosophical lucubrations about life and death at the moment. I think what I need right now is some diversion.

So out the window with “Crime and Punishment” and the Book of Revelation.

I’m overdosing on the movies of the 1930s, especially the musicals. I’m currently watching “Love Me Tonight,” with Maurice Chevalier and Jeannette MacDonald, circa 1932. It’s well-written and cute, with some chirpy little songs.

If I wanted to be dark about it, I would point out that every single person in the cast is almost certainly dead by now: debonair Maurice and squeaky Jeannette, goofy Charles Butterworth, sardonic Charlie Ruggles, clever Myrna Loy.

But when I watch this cheery little film, they’re all as alive as can be, and having a wonderful time.

How about “Gold Diggers of 1933”? Delightful. And all of them gone: Ginger Rogers, Aline MacMahon, Ruby Keeler, Joan Blondell, Dick Powell, Warren William, Guy Kibbee.

But the film is like new: cheerful and tuneful.

This is the medicine I really need.

To quote “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”:

Nothing of gods, nothing of fate;

Weighty affairs will just have to wait.

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Theater review: "Timeshare," at Brown/Trinity Playwrights Rep

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Partner and I saw the last play in the Brown/Trinity Playwrights Rep series, “Timeshare,” on Saturday night.

 

 

I love a good farce. I have a very childish sense of humor; I love it when people run in and out of rooms, and scream, and dress in ridiculous outfits, and hide inside coffee tables. (Of course, it has to be done well.  Silly is good; stupid is quite another thing.) Also, you need actors with good timing, who can scream, and cajole, and wheedle, and make funny faces, and do long ridiculous takes.

 

 

We were fortunate to have pretty much all of the above on Saturday night.

 

 

This is a traditional mixed-up family comedy: everyone (mother, father, married daughter + husband, unmarried daughter + boyfriend) shows up at the mountain cabin on the same weekend. Misunderstandings ensue. Two engagement rings are hidden, misplaced, given to the wrong recipients.

 

 

As in all good farce, there is a happy ending.

 

 

I especially liked the use – and subtle subversion – of stereotypes. There’s an unbearable Jewish mother, who turns out to be a convert. The whiny emasculated Jewish dad is also a stoner. The handsome black boyfriend (a shaygetz if I ever saw one) is Jewish. The banker son-in-law is as dumb as a bag of hammers.

 

 

All in all: nicely done.

 

 

(This is a brand-new play, and a very nice one. It takes a teeny bit too long to set the scene in the first act; I think we could have met the characters more speedily. I kept wanting it to be funny during the first few scenes, but it felt sitcom-watery. Once all six of the characters were introduced, however, the fun began in earnest, and there were few dull moments after that.)

 

 

I give high marks to three of the performers: Mark Cohen, the father; Anne Nichols, the mother; and Ben Chase, the goofily stupid/charming son-in-law. (He was my favorite: he’s tall and lanky, with an expressive face and a voice that goes from cornball to Yalie to falsetto seamlessly. We got a lot of laughs out of him.)

 

 

From “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”:

 

 

No royal curse, no Trojan horse –

And a happy ending, of course.

What is the moral? Must be a moral . . .

Here is the moral, wrong or right:

Tragedy tomorrow – comedy tonight!

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