A Woman of No Importance - A play by Oscar Wilde

Hi Everyone

On Friday night to confuse the voices a bit I went to see 'A Woman of No Importance' by Oscar Wilde.

The play was full of nasty, superficial characters and witty one liners.

Basically a young middle class man, Gerald Arbuthnot, finds himself accepted into aristocratic society and offered the post of secretary to the sleazy Lord Illingworth. He also falls in love with their rich American guest Hester Worsley.

Word is sent to Gerald's mother, Mrs Rachel Arbuthnot, to come to see her son and celebrate his good fortune.

It turns out, however, that Lord Illingworth is Gerald's father and his mother hates him for leaving her to bring up Gerald alone.

Eventually the only 'nice' characters - Rachel, Gerald and Hester decide to go to America to get away from the rest of them.

The play is filled with some wonderful one liners including - "Children begin by loving their parents; after a time they judge them; rarely, if ever, do they forgive them." Also "Men always want to be a woman's first love - women like to be a man's last romance."

I thoroughly enjoyed the play and it distracted me nicely from those awful voices.

God Bless

Amber

A Chinese King Lear

Hi Everyone

I'm still depressed but finding ways to distract myself.

Yesterday I went to a Chinese version of King Lear. King Lear (as you can tell from my email address) is one of my favourite Shakespearean plays.

The story is: The ageing King Lear wants to divide his kingdom up between his three daughters - Goneril, Reagan and Cordelia. To get their share they have to tell him how much they love him.

Goneril and Reagan describe their 'love' eloquently whereas Cordelia is simple and plain. In a rage King Lear disowns Cordelia.

Lear realises he has made the wrong decision as Goneril and Reagan betray him and he is left to roam the streets, gradually going mad. He realises he needs to find Cordelia.

A lot of twists and turns and then, like most Shakespearean tragedies, nearly everyone dies.

This production, though, was very Chinese. It took me some time to get used to the clanging and jerking sounds of a traditional Chinese orchestra.

I did love the dancing, though, which verged on martial arts.

One man (Wu Hsing-kuo) played all the parts and he did it brilliantly. I particularly liked the opening scenes where Lear walks around, half mad, looking for Cordelia.

Also Cordelia came across as gentle and sweet, as opposed to her more confident, manipulative sisters. I think this is the right interpretation. Cordelia loves her father but it is not in her nature to be so flowery in her feelings.

All in all a wonderful distraction from my depressed mood.

God Bless

Amber

A Play about Suicide

Hi Everyone

On Wednesday night I went to see a short play that was being workshopped at the Backspace theatre.

It started off as a comedy. There were three male characters. One was called Garry and it was in his house that the scenes took place. He was funny and sarcastic, and didn't let out a lot of personal information.

His two friends were a serial monogomist who perved on women on the TV and a younger University student.

There were many great jokes - the one that stood out was an elaborate toilet joke. It really captured the essence of male friendship ie lots of jokes, not much personal stuff.

Gradually the 'flat' got messier and Gary got more withdrawn - but it was amidst jokes and sarcasm so I, like a lot of the audience, missed the 'signs'.

The play ended with the two friends discussing Gary's suicide.

I thought this was a sensitive and engaging portrayal of male depression/suicide. Statistically more men commit suicide and more women attempt suicide. I think this is because women are more open about their feelings whereas depression in men often goes unnoticed.

The times that I attempted suicide were mostly spur of the moment but once, on my most serious attempt in Alice Springs, it was planned. Suicide does appear selfish to outsiders, and perhaps it is. But, for me, when I attempted suicide I 1) Thought it was the best alternative to my problems and 2) Was feeling so depressed I couldn't think of other people.

I think the play shows that we need to all look out for friends and family and learn to pick up subtle hints that show someone is not 'all right'. We also need to know who to refer them to. In Tasmania it is the Mental Health Helpline.

God Bless you all

Amber

Club Funk and the Divine Pantomime

Hi Everyone

Yesterday was my first day of classes at the Polytechnic. We did team work. We were put into teams by drawing out of a hat. After we were in our teams we had to invent a business.

We had to develop a team name, business name, business motto, logo and colour scheme and the type of business. Our team developed all of these whereas the other teams only got about halfway through. Go Club Funk!

Anyway our team name is 'Club Funk' because many of us liked dancing/clubbing and we liked the word 'Funk'. We decided we were a costume and accessories shop for theatre productions. The business is called 'The Divine Pantomime'. The word 'divine' is in rainbow colours and the word 'pantomime' is in black and white. The motto is 'From dreams to reality' and the logo is a black and white pantomime mask with the previous rainbow colours streaming through as lights.

I really enjoyed this exercise and thought our team worked well together. I was able to relate a bit better to the younger members of the group.

However, some of the young girls that were not in my group continue to ignore me during breaks. This is a bit hurtful for me. Please pray that I will remain positive despite this.

God Bless you all

Amber

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Hi Everyone.

Last night I went to see 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' at the Botanical Gardens. In 2003 I was in the play so it was interesting to see what they did differently.

Here is a brief blurb in case anyone doesn't know the story. The story starts with Hermia. Hermia is in love with Lysander but her father wants her to marry Demetrius. Meanwhile Hermia's friend, Helena, is in love with Demetrius.

Lysander suggests to Hermia that they escape her father and go into the forest. Hermia tells Helena of her plan and Helena and Demetrius also go into the forest.

Meanwhile, in fairyland, the fairy king and queen, Oberon and Titania, are fighting over a mortal boy who Titania wants to keep. Oberon orders his offsider, the mischievious Puck, to get a flower to put on Titania's eye so that she will fall in love with the next person/animal she sees. He also orders Puck to put the flower on Demetrius so he will love Helena.

And, in the next sub-plot, a group of weird tradesmen are practicing for a play for the Duke's wedding. Puck turns their leader, Bottom, into a donkey/ass and the other tradesmen leave in fright. Titania awakes from her sleep, sees Bottom, and drags him into her bedroom.

That's enough plot for now - I don't want to wreck the ending.

Now - for an analysis. The outstanding feature of this play was the guy who played Oberon (man with blue body paint in the picture). He was confident, had stage presence and spoke clearly. Second in line was the wonderful Puck - the actor was cheeky, earthy and funny.

The energy of the play was exceptional. It also had quite a lot of jokes and music. I liked how the show ended - with a rendition of Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' and all the actors dancing like zombies.

I didn't like the fairies costumes. They are pictured - white face masks and black gowns. However, the fairies' acting and cooing was effective.

The opposite went for the mechanicals. They looked wonderful - costuming was great but they were rude rather than funny. The guy who was Bottom did not pull the part off well, which made it hard for the others to be funny.

The lovers were reasonable but not brilliant. The fighting scenes were great but they were not convincingly 'in love'.

Despite all that it was a great night out - the costumes, music and energy made up for what was lacking in the acting and characterisation.

Hope you will enjoy the show!

God Bless

Amber

Alice in Wonderland

Yesterday I went to see Alice in Wonderland at the Botanical Gardens. My favourite character was the chesire cat (pictured) not because he was the best actor really but because he acted like a cat.

I also liked Robert Jarman's 'white rabbit' and 'mad hatter' - white rabbit is pictured.

It was a larger than life musical pantomime and there were lots of young children in the audience. It was nice to see the children laughing and joining in when they could. But it meant we, as childless adults, were reminded that we didn't have them.

Alice really looked the part and I liked the scene where she was about to be beheaded by the queen and stomped her feet in anger. A couple of times, though, she got a bit overexcited and screamed out her lines incomprehensibly.

Overall, however, it was a great production. High energy and lots of fun.

God Bless you all

Amber,