Plays and Hiatuses

For once in the past two weeks, I can finally breathe a sigh of relief (small, yet definable) to actually write on this thing.  I've been constricted with papers, tests, and the like, leaving me with very little time to do anything but.  The thought of trying to write anything worth reading for this made my head want to explode, literally.

I'm not going to pretend I didn't slack off however, during this time of no postings, but usually it had something to do with mindless games, music, or food.  All of which are things that require no activity whatsoever in  my brain.

I did want to say something about a play I managed to see last week for my English class.  Anna in the Tropics, set in the 1920s at a Spanish cigar factory in Tampa, Florida, was played at the Capital Repertory theater in downtown Albany last Wednesday.  

In the beginning of the semester, when my professor proclaimed his interest to the class, everyone agreed.  He then proceeded to count said people who wanted to go.  At least 20 hands were recognizable.  However, when I walked into the doors of the small, cozy, theater, only four other students were sitting there ready to watch the play.  One of those four wasn't even from our class, but instead someone who was accompanying another.

Throughout the entire performance, I was very pleased.  The story was just so much more magnificent in person rather than on pages in front of me.  I walked out happy.

The actors, while some weren't what I expected (like the man who played Juan Julian.  He was supposed to be sexy and debonair, but instead reminded me of Sacha Baron Cohen in Borat) but emotions were intensified as affairs, arguments, and cigars rolled on by.

I would definitely recommend the play by Nilo Cruz.  It won a Pulitzer Prize in 2003, which has to mean something.  I don't know how good each performance of it however, in different venues would be.

When we finally started talking about it in class, we realized how bad it actually was.  Some costumes, props, and characters were done completely wrong.  A classmate remarked about how a picture that was supposed to be Juan Julian was in fact a baby photo.

It was still enjoyable, though.  I'm not a very good critic when it comes to plays, mostly because I love the atmosphere too much.