Thursday, January 17, 2008

Witlings thoughts and questions

One of the things that I find most interesting about this play is the juxtaposition of "idea" and "act."
Here these people who present themselves to be the pinnacle of sophistication and learned thinking treat each other so miserably. What is our rationality really for? Do we use it as so many here do simply to impress others, to be thought better of, or do we use it as the charcter of Mr. Censor does... to actually solve problems.
So here's a proposition...
Let's try to watch, to be attentive to all the ways in which people around us today do things that contradict what they say they think.
We can present some of these and use them to see what might be appropriate for some of the situations for these charcters in the play.

George

1 comment:

Magis Theatre Company said...

George,

I sent this blog http://kyralopez-choi.blogspot.com/
around via workspace but I wanted to copy a bit here in line with your discussion of "idea" vs. "act" Here is an account of a ridiculously wealthy woman who says she wants to get in shape, particularly to tone her butt! but she can't get off of a machine to get herself water. Gee I wonder where the spiritual and literal flab are coming from:


One day, we were five minutes into a session and she said to me, “Where’s my water?” I looked up from her prone body and flabby tush on the Pilates machine and saw the little bottles of Evian on the rolling-cart-that-used-to-be—a-mini-bar and said to her, “It’s just over there, right on the bar.” She sighed and said, as if I were a slow child, “Well, would you bring one to me please?” Somewhat disbelieving, I actually walked across the room to do it -- it was only ten feet away but it felt like a runway, she eyed me carefully. I fetched her her stupid water, and after I’d handed it to her, she said, “You know, I shouldn’t have to ask for things like that. You really should learn to anticipate my needs.”

That is just one little gem example of how great Kyra's blog/story about Eloise can help us explore the modern version of some of these characters. I can totally see Lady Smatter ordering breakfast in the middle of her Pilates series of 5.

-Margi