- The London Underground
The group had a lack of time and energy yesterday so we learned how to use “the Tube” today. So exciting! Ok, but seriously, I learned that these tunnels are over 150 years old. I think that makes it the oldest subway system in the world, surpassing New York by decades. I don’t know if it’s just that we’re visiting a large city or it’s British disposition or both, but people here seem to be in a rush to get where they’re going. Silent car rides, headphones in, heads down. I got a separated from the rest of the group by almost a whole tram car, but I remembered where we stopped and rejoined the group. A missed exit from the tram could’ve spelled at least a 30 minute delay I imagine. Five of us took a second tram and arrived at King’s Cross to meet us.
- Straight Line Crazy
I’m gonna begin this post by saying that I really liked this play, because I’m about to be pretty critical. I was astonished to find that British professional theater has a “designer” who is essentially the costume and set designer. These elements were excellent. I’m glad Grason got to see his “big map” idea realized. I don’t think you’d say it was symbolic, or a motif because it was so direct, but the map was an effective visual overall. The actors stood over it, them being the ones to decide what really happens to the island of Manhattan. When Connell draws on the map she literally makes a scar, showing the damage the new expressway would cause.
The acting was Fiennes as well 🙂 Of course, I wish I could’ve been closer to get a better view of the actors’ faces, but they seemed to be doing excellent, little complaint. However, the dialects were hit and miss. Guy Paul, who played American businessman Henry Vanderbilt had the most transparently English accent. Meanwhile Samuel Barnett who played Ariel Porter was perfect. He had a very international and technical method and the best American accent on that stage. Ralph Fiennes accent work was distracting at worst some of the time, but I learned a lot from his mistakes. He kept dropping ‘r’s in the middle of words, especially in the first act. However, some words were just stressed in a British way. For instance, he said fi-nance instead of fi-nance. It’s something really picky, but important for dialect! The syllable stress is part of it. I can’t critique the other dialects, but Helen Schlesinger had a fine American accent as well.
There were some directing choices I found difficult to understand. For much of the first act Ralph Fiennes strutted around the stage like a squirming bug even when he had the highest status in most scenes. Shawn explained that this blocking was partly due to the thrust stage and how they need to cheat out to the audience, but also that so many people are here to see Ralph Fiennes. I wish I paid more attention to the blocking overall. Apparently the straight versus squiggled blocking was intentional, but I didn’t quite pick up on it.
I really appreciated the narrative writing. They clearly painted Robert Moses as real man with founded values and showed how those values eventually f*** over Manhattan. So much of the play is spent on his characterization. He is clearly a determined man of action, just based off the opening monologue and how he treats his work. Although the relationship between Moses and Connell was probably the most interesting thing about the show, I was sort of disinterested in the way she calls him out at the end. She does a great job of challenging the values of a man who is absolutely resistant to change, but she uses some very contemporary language at the end that didn’t seem to me to fit the period. She paints a bit of a clear-cut, intersectional understanding of his work which is hard to understand coming from a white person in America in the 1940s. However, their dialogue does show that it may have been Moses’ disregard for equity that really led to his most destructive decisions. I always admire actors who can “flip.” Think True West. For more complex roles, you’ve gotta be able to change over time. Straight Line Crazy showed how the man who loved parks came to change his mind, and took every criticism as an assault on his ego. This part was Fiennes best work, and the most interesting to see.
Theatre in London U of A 