Sunday: Prelude to Kiss at Above the Law theatre. I reallly-really-really liked it! I love Above the Law more than any other storefront theater for its incredible sincerity and the sense of being “in” the show (that’s what all the storefront theaters are good at, but Above the Law is exceptionally good!). The actors were so natural that you would forget to breathe because you did not want to interfere with the life happening before you. We took my mom to that show because she enjoyed it every time we took her before. She would always say that even when she didn’t understand a word, she enjoyed the acting. I didn’t have a second thought, but for some reason, this time, she got really angry that we didn’t tell her what the show was about in advance (we didn’t know). I have an idea why it was different that way, but I am not going to concentrate on that. No matter how others felt, I thought it was amazing:). A beautiful break in the middle of a very loaded weekend!
It is a very thought-provoking play, and I could not believe it was written in 1988 – it sounded so timely!
My neighbor, with whom we have most of the subscriptions, is traveling for the next couple of weeks, so we exchanged tickets for several shows. We ended up with three shows in one week, and that’s why I was unable to go to Joffrey one more time.
That being said, on Friday, it was Death Becomes Her. As I learned later, it was the week of the world premiere, and Chicago was fortunate to experience a pre-Broadway run of this show.
It was perfect in all possible ways. Brilliant acting, singing, and dancing, amazing costumes, sets, and stunts. It reminded me of Karel Capel’s play Makropulos Affair. I love pretty much everything Karel Capek has written, including his short stories and plays, and I think his legacy has been unjustly forgotten. The Makropulos Affair and The White Disease are my favorites, and I am so sad that his plays never get any attention anymore. Even RUR, which gave the world the word “robot” – how many people know what it’s about?
In any case, Death Becomes Her reminded me of one of my favorites. Since the show has just been launched, there are very few videos available, and they do not give any idea about how awesome the show is. I hope there will be more to come!
I am so sad I missed the first act! I actually wanted to buy one more ticket, but I was going to a Broadway show on Friday and to a local theater on Sunday, and there were no tickets for any of the two Saturday shows except for the seats on the very back.
This ballet has nothing to do with Shakepear’s play, and as always with Joffrey, there are no words to describe it!
I was hoping for a bigger crowd, but there were just a few people who cared. As everyone who spoke at the rally mentioned, the whole world remembers the Haymarket riots and the fight for the 8-hour workday—the whole world except for the country where they took place. And fewer and fewer people remember the lyrics of “Solidarity Forever.”
This lady in front is a sculptor who created this monument
On Saturday, I allowed myself to have a day of complete relaxation. I know that the description that will follow won’t sound like a relaxation to many people, but it definitely was for me.
For the first time that week, I had breakfast at home with Boris, and we took time, and talked, and I was not running anywhere. Then I took a train to the look to meet one of my peers with whom I wanted to talk but didn’t have time before or during the conference. I gave her a mini-tour of the Loop while we were walking to the CAC building, where her actual tour was about to start.
Then I returned home, and we had lunch. Then, we did a couple of small house projects and headed to the CSO. It was the first time that I booked a pre-concert dinner at the Thomas Club on the 9th floor of the Chicago Symphony Building -and we both loved it! Everything: the view, the ambiance, the food and drinks, and the service was just perfect!
As for the concert, it was something I never heard before! Both the CSO and the Jazz in Lincoln Center Orchestra were on stage, and the performance they gave together was smashing!
Both Shostakovich and Prokofiev’s pieces are more than well-known to us: most of them were often on the radio in the Soviet Union, but their interpretation was so unusual that we could hardly recognize them. Two hours of pure joy 🙂
OMG, what I’ve just experienced! I am so glad that I had this opportunity! The Siskel Film Center hosted the Art of Benshi world tour; there were only two performances in Chicago (and the program was different on both days). Somehow, I managed not to miss an email when they announced these performances and got tickets for Igor and myself (and both shows were sold out!). I never knew about benshi! You know how, at the dawn of cinematography, there was a pianist (or even a small orchestra) playing during silent movies? Well, in Japan, they not only had an orchestra but also a narrator, who gave a whole dramatic performance following the actions on the screen. That is the art of benshi, and that’s what we have experienced today! I suspect even my Japanese friend will be jealous when she sees today’s program! And since I am afraid it will be removed from the Siskel Center website very soon, I am copy-pasting the program description here.
SANJI GOTO—THE JAPANESE ENOCH ARDEN (NARIKIN) 1918, dirs. Harry Williams, Kisaburo Kurihara Japan, 35 min. Silent / Format: Digital Billed as the “the first ever Japanese production of its kind,” SANJI GOTO holds a fascinating place in international film history. After training as an actor with Thomas Ince, director Kisaburo “Thomas” Kurihara returned to Japan to make films to export to the US beginning with this slapstick comedy. Iwajiro Nakajima, “the Japanese Charlie Chaplin,” stars as a guileless janitor who journeys to the States on the chance of inheriting a fortune. Sadly, the film survives only as a fragment. Exhibition materials courtesy of the National Film Archive of Japan. Performed by Hideyuki Yamashiro.
JIRAIYA THE HERO (GÔKETSU JIRAIYA) 1921, dir. Shozo Makino Japan, 21 min. Silent, intertitles in Japanese with English subtitles / Format: Digital The first star of the Japanese screen, Matsunosuke Onoe plays the title character, a shape-shifting ninja who battles his enemies with an arsenal of magic, which includes transforming himself into a giant toad. Based on a famous folktale, JIRAIYA THE HERO was one of Japan’s earliest “trick films” and survives today as a fragment featuring a series of loosely connected fight scenes. Exhibition materials courtesy of the National Film Archive of Japan. Performed by Ichiro Kataoka, Kumiko Omori, and Hideyuki Yamashiro.
OUR PET 1924, dir. Herman C. Raymaker USA, 11 min. Silent, intertitles in Japanese with English subtitles / Format: Digital Diana Serra Cary, better known by her screen name Baby Peggy, was only 19 months old when director Fred Fishback cast her in a series of comedy shorts in 1921 alongside Brownie the Wonder Dog. By the following year, she was one of the biggest child stars in the world. In OUR PET, discovered at auction in 2016 by master benshi Ichiro Kataoka, Peggy is awakened from sleep by a series of burglars who quickly find themselves in over their heads, Home Alone–style. Performed by Kumiko Omori.
A PAGE OF MADNESS (KURUTTA IPPEIJI) 1926, dir. Teinosuke Kinugasa Japan, 70 min. Silent, intertitles in Japanese with English subtitles / Format: Digital With a scenario devised by Japanese novelist (and later Nobel Prize winner) Yasunari Kawabata with contributions from other members of the radical literary movement known as Shinkankakuha, director Teinosuke Kinugasa crafted this visionary masterpiece that was thought lost for almost 50 years. Wracked with guilt, believing his wanton cruelty drove his wife insane, a husband becomes a janitor at the asylum where she’s incarcerated so he can care for her. When he comes to fear her illness may prevent their daughter from getting married, he gradually loses his own grip on reality. Replete with fantastical images, super impositions, and rapid montage, the film subverts any sense of narrative coherence even as Kinugasa builds, according to critic Chris Fujiwara, “an atmosphere of astonishing intensity.” Performed by Ichiro Kataoka.
The first free films are amazing, but the last one, “A Page of Madness,” was beyond amazing! I still can’t believe that it was filmed a hundred years ago! It’s of a Tarkovsky level, if not above! I am speechless! And very thankful 🙂
On Thursday, I went to listen to Mendelssohn’s Elijah in the CSO: I needed to replace two matinee concerts for which I was going to take my mom and which I couldn’t make because of my schedule changes. I hadn’t heard Elijah before and was slightly unsure how the two-and-a-half hours of oratorio would go with my mom (and with me, for that matter).
And it turned out to be two-and-a-half hours of such joy that it was almost difficult to keep being joyful 🙂
Mom loved it and said that she never thought Mendelssohn would write something like that :). As usual, she did find things to complain about, but that was minor.
The CSO has an Instagram post about this concert; you can scroll to see the pictures of the singers, but unfortunately, you can’t hear them. I didn’t find any recordings with this particular cast; if I will find it, I will add a link here.
I wondered why it was performed in English, and then I learned that its premier was in English and that there were both English and German versions from the start.
After a questionable Aida last week, it was such a delight! The impeccable voices, the moving music, and all the performers united by the great masterpiece – it couldn’t be better!
That was one of the most anticipated operas of the season for me, and I didn’t like it. My neighbor with whom we share this subscription just returned from a two-week trip to Egypt, and even before we went, she told me that she read “horrible reviews” about this production.
I do not mind the modernization of the classic (I enjoyed Penelopiad at Goodman!), but in this production, everything except for the music and voices, was indeed horrible.
I copied several images from the Lyric website to illustrate. I do not understand why they had to invent their own hieroglyphs instead of Egyptian, and why they had to cover the whole stage set with these images. I do not understand why they had to dress the male cast in these turn-of-the-previous-century uniforms.
The voices were beautiful. The music was great. But by the middle of it I chose to enjoy it with my eyes closed 🙂 .
Hettie's Reflections 