Sunday, June 28, 2009

OMG!

As they line up animals two by two as the heavens open up, I have just enough battery power to tell you that Dante was amazing (except for the drunk guy in the back) and I am going home to reread Inferno!

It was all there: love, obsession, and sexy Italian talk!

Gotta go! Eric took the only umbrella.

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2 comments:

meg barker said...

Flash reviews from a night at the Piggyback Fringe – Sunday, June 28, 2009
By Meg Barker

Dante, written by Kaitlin Phillips, is an intriguing, modern play about the historical tendency of literary society (or societies generally), to idolize women for the creative or other ends of the human male, who, in the past and largely in the present, is in the driver’s seat. Here, we see a change – the beginnings of a transfer of some societal motive force from men to women. The play is structured on a layering of two time periods – the dawning of the Renaissance in Western civilization, and our contemporary, bewildering times.
The poet Dante Alighieri is seemingly the object of attraction and source of inspiration for the playwright, an interesting reversal – it turns the basic premise for literary creation on its head. It questions the use of idealized women as the source of creative forces such as Dante found in fixing his passions on an unattainable Beatrice. The product that came out of this alchemy – The Inferno, laid a moral and literary groundwork for future literary achievements in the Renaissance. Petrarch, a later poet, used an already-married Laura as his source of inspiration, but had little use for her friendship.
Three talented actors play the roles of Laura (Kristan Brown), Dante (Forrest Seamons) and Beatrice (Beatrice). The contemporary Laura is the girlfriend and co-habitant of Dante, and she is frustrated and anxious over Dante’s lack of interest in finding employment. Her demonstration of the tactics used by some females in trying to motivate the modern man - a mix of manipulation, seduction and pleading – are superb. Laura suffers the consequences of her own scheme to get Dante to work, in introducing Dante to Beatrice, for whom he admits his seemingly permanent yearning. Beatrice, a decisive, career-driven and unapologetic figure, is unimpressed of his use of her and decides to get her own back.
While it was probably intentional that Dante was to be played as an object, himself, by the two women, and had little character of his own, it wasn’t very convincing or exciting. I believe the play could have had more explosive power if Dante, like the two women, had been allowed to express who he is today, and come clean. Likewise, there was all kind of potential in the relationship that-never-was between the two intelligent and energetic women.
The play is a fascinating incursion into significant topics for our times, however it remains somewhat obscure. This reviewer guesses that there were several themes and devices within the play that weren’t entirely developed. Consequently it became a bit too complex for the standard audience. At the same time, this reviewer, for one, would laud Peanutfish Productions for a challenging, thought-provoking show. And I urge the playwright Kaitlin Phillips not to “sell out” but to keep on going. If there’s one thing women should learn about playwrighting, it’s that.

June 29, 2009 at 12:23 PM
AMegzBeing said...

Yikes! - so enamoured with Beatrice was I that omitted the name of the impressive actor in the review above. She is Caitlin Goldie. - Meg Barker

June 29, 2009 at 12:59 PM

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