Playing "why does s/he look familiar"? and other personal reactions to plays

(previously posted at keestone.livejournal.com)

About four years ago, I saw a wonderful production of Philadelphia Here I Come, which was excellent timing, since I was studying Brian Friel that semester.  I loved the play, but I found it somewhat derivative.  See, I absolutely love The Glass Menagerie, and I saw a great deal of Tennessee Williams' influence in Philadelphia Here I Come.

Today, I saw a wonderful production of The Glass Menagerie.  I almost laughed when the Gentleman Caller walked on stage, though.  It was Private Gar.


Speaking of laughter, this is the second seriously dramatic play I've seen at The Gate that the rest of the audience audience seemed to find much more funny than I did.  It's kind of weird to hear people laughing at moments that you find painful.  The other play that this happened in was Uncle Vanya.  Part of this was Brian Friel's translation, which I didn't particularly like.  It played some moments for broader humor rather than what I remembered as more cynical and fatalistic, and it seemed to be trying to make Uncle Vanya an Anglo-Irish Big House play.   It was one of the less satisfactory productions I saw during the Dublin Theatre Fetival.  It was still very good, mind.  Vanya and Sonia were both excellent.  But, I preferred the other translation I'd seen before, Yelena seemed to have wandered in from a Noel Coward play, and I found Astrov a wholly unlikable ass, where I'd previously found him the most sympathetic character.

Speaking of somewhat off characterization...  While the production of The Glass Menagerie I saw today was excellent and all the actors were wonderful, I felt that Laura was miscast.  A couple of the other people in the group I went with had the same thought . . . she wasn't fragile enough.  It was more than that though.  It's hard to express this . . . she was too extroverted.  Too expressive, almost.  (I suppose that it also didn't help that she looked like Wynona Rider.)  The actor was really really good, and she gave a beautiful performance, but it just didn't fit quite right.  It bugged me, and it was personal.  See, Laura is the first character I really, really touched.  I haven't played her in a full production, but I've played her in scenework, and I did do the scene with Jim in a student showcase.  It was a meaningful experience.  I've always identified a little too closely with Laura Wingfield.  (Amusingly enough, my knee seized up during the play, so I ended up limping out of the theatre at the end.)