neotoma

Went to see Synetic's production of The Snow Queen today with pleasance, greenygal, and A Pseudonym. It was a lovely adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen story, and a very funny sequence with the Robber Girl.

We're trying to hash out holiday plans, including see The Muppet Christmas Carol sometime next weekend, and maybe Star Wars as well. And watching Spider-man cartoons over the break, as Disney+ apparently has most of them available, if you've subscribed to the service.

I have to say, the days right before the solstice are the worst -- the performance was an afternoon show, and after we had dinner at We, the Pizza it was only about 6 or so and it felt late. Why can't just take all of the winter easy, stay inside mostly and not go out into the cold and damp?

I saw Aquaman yesterday with fabrisse. The first scene with Black Manta against Aquaman showed me why the reviewers haven't been enthusiastic about this film -- the emotional beats were all over the map, and couldn't keep a coherent mood or the tension going in the scene.

It's a visually gorgeous movie, and Arthur's relationship with his dad is a highlight of the character interactions. It's nice to see a superhero who has a family that he cares about and is involved with. Jason Momoa looks fabulous, and when he's allowed to go toward more comedic and human moments he's really good.

As to the plot, well, it held together well enough. It was interesting that no Old Mentor Figure died, which is unusual for a hero's origin story, but Aquaman is older than the usual young hero, so maybe he doesn't need someone to die for him to grow up?

Today, greenygal, pleasance, and A Pseudonym To Be Named Later went to see Synetic Theater's adaptation of My Father's Dragon. The show had a minimal cast playing the Cat, the Boy, and three ensemble members playing everything else, mostly with puppets. The puppets were amazing, especially the rhino, which was a two-person costume that was about the size of an actual rhinoceros, and the crocodile, which was only the part of a crocodile that might be above water while swimming, and was pushed across stage floor by the ensemble. There was also a good warthog, some sort of adorable, angry rodent, a lion (with glowing eyes and a mouth that opened to roar), and a gorilla that was a giant mask and two fist that each took a person to operate.

Next month they're doing an adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac, which should be interesting.

Friday: saw King Charles III at the Shakespeare Theater.

Saturday: went to Millennium Stage for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater workshop based on his signature work Revelations: we did "Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel", "Wade in the Water", and "Rocka My Soul iin the Bosom of Abraham", admittedly with somewhat simplified choreography -- nobody was asking a group of amateurs to do hinges, after all. It was a lot of fun, but I did have the usual problem of children who weren't participating but were running around being underfoot. I don't want to trip on or knock over a 7-year-old!

Sunday: a short excursion to Labyrinth Games & Puzzles -- we got sucked into the jigsaw puzzle vortex, as they had a Ravensburger Antique Map puzzle out for fiddling with, and the salesclerk helpfully showed us the roll-mats for puzzles, so there are tentative plans to have an all-day puzzle party sometime soonish. Then dinner at Belga Cafe. We got a couple of waffles to share as starters, and then entrees. Desserts we decided to share among the table -- basically, we'd talked greenygal into ordering the asparagus beignets with candied asparagus and asparagus ice cream, and everyone wanted to try a bit of it. We actually ordered every desert except the endive clafoutis...maybe next time?..but I think the best dessert was the warm cherry almond cake.

Monday: stayed in bed with a head cold... which is a let-down after a very fun weekend.

On Monday I went out with fabrisse to see the National Theater Live filmed production of Tom Stoppard's The Hard Problem, as she had a spare ticket. It was quite an excellent play, which deals scientific ambition, financial trading, unreciprocated sexual attraction, scientific integrity, and adoption from the viewpoint of the birth mother. The hard problem of the title is the question of consciousness, which is currently one of the thorniest problems in science, since we really don't know enough about the brain to know anything other than "we don't how to ask that yet".

Yesterday, I went with greenygal and pleasance to see the filmed version of Julie Taymor's version of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the AFI. It was amazing. Given that it was Taymor, the costume design was fantastic, including use of fiber-optic lights in Titania's costuming, body paint -- Oberon's was either blue-black or blued steel, with glitter and gold accents -- and a donkey mask with hand-operated mouth movement for Bottom. The fairies entered and left through the ceiling and floor, and the entire cast made fantastic use of all the stage space, including catwalks above the audience. Max Casella as Bottom was hilarious, Mandi Mansen as Helena made me really feel for her when she was accusing Hermia, Demetrius and Lysander of mocking her, Demetrius and Lysander were hilarious when they kept getting in slap-fights and competive stripping over Helena (because it's not Midsummer if all four of the young lovers don't end up in their underwear), Kathryn Hunter as Puck was apparently made of rubber, I would love to see David Harewood (who played the Prince of Morocco in the 2004 film of The Merchant of Venice -- Portia should have run off with him, he was so damned charming) and Tina Benko as Oberon and Titania live, and Zachary Infante was surprisingly touching as Flute playing Thisbe.

Yesterday, greenygal and I went to see the production of Three Musketeers at Synetic Theater, the local stage company that uses dance, Russian physical theater, and non-traditional interpretations in their performances. They're well known locally for putting on silent (wordless) production of Shakespeare. These are the people who put on the all-clown production of King Lear that was creepy as fuck.

Thankful, The Three Musketeers was not creepy. ( It was awesome! )

Basically, it was a ton of swashbuckling, some tragedy with Athos and deWinter's backstory (her wanting revenge on everyone was great, but I missed why she thought her first murder was justified...), the sweetness of Constance and D'Artagnan's romance, D'Artagnan's complete puppyness, and generally a lot of fun and good dancing.

Next, Synetic is doing their A Midsummers Night's Dream adaptation, which I have seen before, but wouldn't mind seeing again. I'm actually thinking about buying a subscription for the season, since 2013-14 is The Picture of Dorian Grey, Twelfth Night, Hamlet … the rest is silence, and Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog).