Theatre of the Absurd (Ionesco)

I haven't seen all that many productions of Eugene Ionesco's plays, and indeed, the only two that tend to be put on in North America are La Cantatrice Chauve (The Bald Soprano) and Rhinoceros.  I think The Lesson used to be put on more often (and is still constantly on view in Paris), but the power dynamics are just so uncomfortable (and the huge number of trigger warnings required) that it isn't worth it any longer.  And maybe that's ok.  I don't think The Lesson has nearly as much to teach us today as it used to.  (I don't recall the production, but apparently I did see The Lesson back in 1997!)

In any event, I saw The Bald Soprano in Chicago in 1999, and I probably saw Rhinoceros (though it is possible I am confusing this with a video version I had to watch for French class in undergrad).  Seven Siblings did Rhinoceros a season or two ago, but I wasn't able to make it.  I can rectify that this season, however.

I stumbled across a review of Théâtre français de Toronto's current production of La Cantatrice Chauve and decided it was worth checking out.  What swung the decision is that most evenings, they were running the show with English surtitles.  While the dialogue is generally kept to fairly basic French, I am certainly not strong enough to follow along without some guidance.  I went on Wed., and it was a well done performance with the cast really throwing themselves into the part.  (There was a minute or two gap when the surtitles went out, but fortunately it was a stretch where they were just echoing lines back and forth.)  There are three performances left, and two of them will be surtitles, so you'll have to jump on this if interested.  More information here.

Then in April, George Brown will be doing Rhinoceros.  This should be a fairly straight-forward production, and I'm quite likely to bring my son along.  More information here.

I will say that of the three, I prefer Rhinoceros as the underlying meaning (or "moral" as it were), warning of the dangers of creeping totalitarianism or authoritarianism, is just as relevant today.  The point of The Bald Soprano, to the extent there is one, is about the limits of language to communicate anything fundamental, or perhaps rather there is such a chasm between what one says and one's inner state.  At least that's my take on it, and I'm not really convinced this particular play is the best representation of these ideas.

Progress?

I now have a fairly big hole in the basement where some pipes will be laid for this new bathroom.  While I'm sure the final product will be worth it, there are definitely going to be some teething pains...

I'm still kind of sad about losing all the storage, but depending on how they frame the bathroom, I may be able to sneak in a small shelving unit.

Progress has been pretty good on Day 2.  They laid the main piping down and have added one layer of concrete.  Not quite sure how long it will take to dry, but probably will be done at some point tonight.

More Basement Clean-up

I really wish I had taken a before photo, but this gives a little bit of a sense of how deep the boxes were in the basement storage area.

Now you have to imagine this stretching across the entire length of the basement shelves, approximately 18 feet.  I was told I needed to clear off 12 or so feet by Monday, since that is where the bathroom had to go.

While I was getting a little sloppy by the end, and not caring overly much about what I was throwing away, I managed to get enough cleared for the job to start.

A few things of interest turned up.  I found a bag of refrigerator magnets, as well as a few missing mugs.  Even a masher that will be helpful when I make mashed potatoes.  Now there are still a few missing CDs (I had a bad habit of not always putting the CD back in the right case -- it isn't so bad if they are scrambled in cases, but if they end up in the tall stack of data CDs/DVDs, it is very hard to find later on), and I'll just have to keep my eyes open.

So where did everything go?  We put a wire shelving rack in the back room (more of a tool shed really) and that is now mostly full of boxes of holiday decorations, which will have to be even further consolidated after this Christmas.

An awful lot of stuff was just recycled, and we'll be getting rid of a lot of cardboard boxes over the next few weeks.  I'll also have to pay for at least two extra bags of garbage this week, though maybe the contractor will have a bit of spare room in his bin.  And we gave away about four boxes of stuff to Value Village and put some old clothes in the donation bins.

While this feels pretty amazing to have gotten through so much stuff, I did leave a few boxes to go through later, since they could be tucked away for the time being.  And there is another room with a lot of boxes that my daughter is insisting I clear out, though this may not happen, at least to her liking.  After the bathroom is framed in, I'll have a better sense of whether I can store a bunch of boxes full of books next to the bathroom, or I have to find another solution.

But it was a fairly exhausting weekend, and I don't want to have to repeat this right away...

Packed Day with Hamilton

While the big ad campaign has been all around Hamilton (the musical) going on sale on Monday, most theatre-goers are on the Mirvish email list, and got special advance notice that sales would actually start on Saturday!  It's very possible that there won't be any tickets left on Monday at all -- or certainly very few.  I think this is unfortunate, but no question that an awful lot of people were well aware of this Sat. sale (as events would show).

I wasn't sure I was going to try to get to the gym early, but in fact I did make it there at 7 am (and then went to the grocery store after that).  Before I left, I signed up to get into the pre-queue.  At 10 am, everyone in this line-up would be given a random spot in line and then the sales would begin.

So duly at 10, I checked to see my spot in line.  I was #20,600 (or something like that).  While the line was moving fairly quickly (and an awful lot of these spots were probably filled by bots that wouldn't even show up after a sufficient number of tickets had been hoovered up), this was still pretty disappointing.

Around 11, I met my daughter at the mall.  She had been there to get her vision checked, so we then headed over to Hakim Optical.  She didn't want to go anywhere else after we ordered her new glasses, and this actually worked to my advantage.  I was going to continue on to the library, but I went ahead and checked my email.  It turned out that 6 minutes before, I had been notified that my number had been called, and I only had 14 minutes left to claim my tickets!  I was expecting to have at least another hour before I moved to the head of the line, which speaks to just how many people gave up or were just randomly generated bots.  Presumably if we had either gone into the Eaton Centre or went off to work, I would have missed my chance.  I would have tried to order through my phone, but I suspect it wouldn't have worked, given how often things were timing out on the internet (with an actual connection, not just a WiFi connection).

At any rate, then it was quite agonizing waiting for the bus to make two more stops (partly because someone in a wheelchair got on a very full bus and the driver had to get people to move).  Nonetheless, I got back to my computer just in time, and entered the ticketing system.  And found that it was completely bogged down (due to probably about 100 people at a time trying to buy tickets).

I actually found a couple of tickets, and put them in the basket.  At every single step along the way, it took about 2-3 minutes to enter my information and then move to the next page.  And in fact, my tickets expired while I was waiting to enter my credit card info!  I was royally pissed, but since I hadn't actually been kicked out, I decided I would try to get them again.  I literally could not navigate back to the same performance, but I picked a comparable performance and finally got those seats into the basket.  It went just a bit faster before this time around, and I managed to score 2 Hamilton tickets.  (Incidentally, these are for my wife and son.  I listened to the Hamilton soundtrack and decided this just wasn't for me...)  In the end, it took about 25 minutes (on top of the 3+ hour wait to have my number selected).  Still--

So that was a very productive (and yet quite frustrating day).  I went off to the library after that and picked up 3 books on hold, then went to the other grocery store on the way home.  Then I took a long nap...

I've spent the rest of the evening working on cleaning out the basement and have made significant progress.  I'll probably work through the remaining boxes with my wife tomorrow.  I'll also try to carve out some time to put up Halloween decorations and work with my daughter to carve her pumpkin.  It's about that time to get ready for the Great Pumpkin.

What Was I Up to in 2013?

I'm making decent progress on cleaning out the basement (I guess I only hinted that I have contractors coming soon to work on the basement) and going through 20 or so boxes in deep storage. At any rate, that's what I have been doing these past few days.

I've come across loads of old photos, some of which I'll eventually scan and post.  I also stumbled across a calendar from 2013.  This was my second full year in Vancouver.  I believe by the summer I had already decided to relocate to Toronto, since we didn't fully enjoy living in Vancouver for a variety of reasons and we felt we were too far from our families.  (Ironically, my brother recently relocated to Seattle...)  My email archive indicates that I really started ramping up the job search to find a company with offices in Vancouver and Toronto (to facilitate the move) by the late fall.

The calendar doesn't really go into that, but it does list some of the main cultural events I was up to in 2013.  I might as well list them here before I recycle the calendar.

In mid Jan., I was in DC for the Annual TRB conference.  This is probably the second-last time I made it to TRB, and unfortunately I don't think I'll be going back to TRB until I change jobs again...

Jan 19, I was at the VSO to see Prokofiev's Symphony 5 and Grieg's Piano Concerto.  I probably have already mentioned this, but I much preferred the overall concert-going experience in Vancouver, relative to Toronto, as the Orpheum Theatre is so much nicer than Roy Thompson Hall.  The two symphonies are surprisingly similar in terms of quality and adventurousness, rather than the TSO being light years ahead of the VSO.

Feb. 7 I saw Ninja Pirates Theatre Company (or whatever they called themselves) doing a SF play (about a cat cloning itself) called Kitty Kitty Kitty.

Feb. 17, I was back at the Orpheum to see the VSO in a very full program - Delius’s Brigg Fair, An English Rhapsody, Elgar's Enigma Variations and Britten’s Violin Concerto.

The calendar indicates I was thinking about checking out Swan Lake, but for one reason or another I didn't actually go.  Conversely, I did see Bach's Goldberg Variations out at the Chan Centre, but this didn't make it onto the calendar.

On March 23, I had to take an English comprehension test as a condition for getting my permanent residency status.  While this was quite annoying (given that I actually have a Master's in English literature, from the University of Toronto no less!), there really was no way around it, so I went off and took the test.  At the end of March, I took my son and daughter to visit their grandfather in Greensboro, NC.  The whole business of having to transfer for practically every flight heading east of the Mississippi (except for Toronto of course) was definitely one thing that pushed us out of Vancouver.

April was very busy on the cultural front.  I saw the Borodin Quartet and the Smetana Trio.  Then there was a program of slightly avante classical music on April 20 (Edward Top, Colgrass, Magnanensi, Gubaidulina and Andriessen).

I saw Chekhov's Three Sisters at The Cultch on April 16, and on April 27, I went out to UBC to see Heiner Muller's Hamletmachine (the performance was ok, though nothing as interesting as the version I saw in Ann Arbor as an undergrad).

On May 5, I saw the Pacific Rim String Quartet doing Schubert's String Quintet, and I took my son to the concert.  I saw the VSO twice in May (May 11 - Brahms Double Concerto and May 23 - Prokofiev's Sonata for 2 Violins and Shostakovich's 15th Symphony).

I actually flew down to San Francisco to see Tom Stoppard's Arcadia the first weekend of June.  The calendar doesn't actually have a lot on it for June or July.  I see that my mother-in-law visited briefly, and at the end of her trip, my wife and the kids went back for a long visit to Chicago while I stayed in Vancouver and worked.  At the tail end of July, I saw Middleton's Women Beware Women, and I checked out the Vancouver Art Gallery to see an exhibit called Persuasive Visions: 17th Century Dutch and Flemish Masterworks.

I'm really struggling to reconstruct mid-August.  It appears I flew into Toronto on the 7th (to start making plans to relocate to Toronto at some point in the near future), and I was at the Stratford Festival on the 9-10th (for essentially a triple bill -- Othello, Waiting for Godot and then Romeo and Juliet!).  But then on the 11th, I travelled to Chicago (presumably on Porter) and rejoined my family.  Then on the 13th, I took my wife to see The Book of Mormon, which was awesome.  And then on the 15th, I returned to Vancouver.  Presumably I brought the whole family along.  I have to say, I am completely exhausted just reading over this, and it is only slowly coming back to me.  I may have repressed some of those memories.  (In fact, I went to Seattle for a day in early August, but I can't get a clear understanding of why, since there doesn't appear to have been a major exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum opening or about to close...)

On August 25th, I saw Hamlet at Bard on the Beach.  I don't actually see anything on the calendar for Sept., which is a bit suspect...  In mid October, I took the kids to a family-oriented classical concert at the VSO (Carnival of the Animals and far too many other short pieces), and I saw the Kronos Quartet on Oct. 19 (which I blogged about at the time).  On Oct. 20, I saw the Vancouver Arts Club doing Baitz's Other Desert Cities.

In Nov., I saw the VSO on the 2nd (Mendelssohn's Symphony 3, Scottish) and then the 16th and 18th, for the first two parts of Yefim Bronfman's Beethoven Piano Concerto cycle (with the final concert on Dec. 7).  I saw Alan Ayckbourn's Relatively Speaking, and then towards the end of the month, I saw Pi Theatre doing a new piece called Except in the Unlikely Event of War (a dark comedy).  I went down to Seattle one more time.  I can't recall if I went back to the VSO to see Strauss's Don Quixote (soloist Raphael Wallfisch), since it is on the calendar but with a couple of question marks, but I suspect I went in the end.

Dec. 1 I saw the Takács Quartet presented by the Friends of Chamber Music.  And that wraps up 2013.  It was a fairly quiet December, all things considered, but the year was pretty full overall; 2014 was definitely more chaotic, as I got more and more serious about relocating.  I actually received an offer letter in early January, then had to pack up the house through the late spring and early summer (and we actually moved in early July).

Too Close to Call (Alien Election)

As I am writing this, it appears all but inevitable that the Liberals will cling onto power, though most likely in a minority government, whether propped up by the NDP in a formal power-sharing alliance or just in a precarious minority situation where they have to watch out for every vote that could be construed as a vote of confidence.  While the NDP didn't get completely wiped out, they didn't do quite as well as they had hoped (as of last week), so I don't think they'll be in any rush to go to the polls again.  (Incidentally, it looks like Israel is going to be forced into yet another election.  While I am definitely in favour of electoral reform, it has to be done in such a way that you don't have endless splinterings of the parties as they do in Israel and Italy.)

In any case, I am not writing about this election, but the informal one that was the audience participation aspect of my Fringe show, Final Exam.  At the start of the show, we passed out a slip of paper and a golf pencil. After the pros and cons were debated in class, we had the students (and the audience members) vote on whether to get signed up to the group mind or not, with the ballots put in a fancy ballot box.  I remember most of the time, the Nos ran at about 75-80% of the ballots, but I seem to only have the ballots in hand from the last performance, where a bunch of friends of the actor who was strongly in favour of group mind turned up (and voted in solidarity with her).  There may also have been some ballot stuffing...  In any case, the Yes side picked up 12 votes to 17 for the Nos.  Close indeed.

If the rest of the ballots turn up, as I keep cleaning out the basement, I'll tabulate them below.

Quick Notes on Theatre

I decided, after some reflection, to pass on The Life and Death of Fred Herko, even though Claire Burns is directing.  It runs through this weekend (more details here), but it's just not that compelling to me.  I also have decided to pass on the Buddies in Bad Times production of Pass Over, which is a bit of a mash-up of Waiting for Godot and something by Amiri Baraka, such as The Slave.  I was only marginally interested in this, and then I found out that the author, Antoinette Nwandu, disliked the review she got from the Chicago Sun-Times to the point that she and her friends tried to deplatform the critic, Hedy Weiss, and insist that no theatres give Weiss tickets to their shows.  I am so, so tired of this moment in our culture that I cannot see my way to supporting anyone who endorses these tactics.  (I suppose in my own way, I am trying to cancel Nwandu, but there is a difference in that I am not actively trying to prevent others from going to this show, or really even to dissuade them.)

I saw The Flick at Crow's Nest.  While I think the actor playing Sam is definitely too young for the part (and his bald haircut/wig is not at all convincing), the piece holds together pretty well.  This time around, I noticed that Sam seems to indicate that his romantic life is on the upswing, and I didn't catch that the first time I saw the play.  Interestingly, the racial dimension still mattered but wasn't quite as overwhelming as when I saw it in Chicago.  They've added a few more shows, so this is certainly worth checking out, but be aware it is 3+ hours and there is not all that much action, so this is not a show for the casual theatre-goer.

In early Nov., Outside the March will be selling tickets to The Ex-Boyfriend Yard Sale, which I missed at the Theatre Centre.  I personally don't think it is the best fit to be doing it at the Young Centre, and it would fit much better at Factory or Theatre Passe Muraille.  However, the tickets won't be outrageously expensive, and I just need to remember to book them this time around...

I think I will try to get rush tickets for A Streetcar Named Desire after all, mostly due to reviews of how good Mac Fyfe is in this.  There are two weeks left, and I suspect there should be a few seats in the middle of the week.  If not, then I can always use the time to go to the gym or go swimming...  However, the fact that it is also 3+ hours long disinclines me from taking my son, as that just is too long for him.  I honestly don't know why it is so long, as I am sure I've seen it done in 2 hours...

While I am glad that Soulpepper is finally getting with the times and adding Sunday matinees (they held out for the longest time), their ticket prices are still just too high.  I'll only see Fugard's Sizwe Banzi is Dead and Hwang's M. Butterfly if I can get rush tickets.  Sizwe Banzi is Dead is totally ace (and I may try to take my son), but I did see this in Chicago, though 10 years ago now!

George Brown has a somewhat truncated season this year, but I'm still looking forward to Metamorphoses and Rhinoceros in 2020.

I think I mentioned that I did get the 3 show pass as Factory, but I won't be seeing anything for a few months.  The next major play (aside from trying to rush Streetcar) will be Henry VIII at Stratford on Sunday.  Next season Stratford looks pretty interesting indeed, and I just need to see if there is a weekend where I can check out The Rez Sisters and The Miser (and just possibly Hamlet 9/11).  Given that I am leaning towards taking my son to Hamlet, that can be more of a one-off, either a Saturday or Sunday matinee.

The only other thing that I really need to remember to get my tickets for is Sweat at Canadian Stage in Jan.  I'll probably start seeing offers in my in-box in another month.  And then probably Good People by David Lindsay-Abaire at Bloor West Village Players in March.

As a total aside, DPS is still quite good about letting me track upcoming performances of plays under their banner, but Samuel French has completely given up on updating their Now Playing feature.  There are quite a few shows that never get listed at all.  Frustrating.  And with that, it really is time for bed.