Showing posts with label Kennedy Center. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kennedy Center. Show all posts

Friday, February 23, 2007

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Kennedy Center -- 2007 Season

October 14 2006 - Twelve Angry Men - Eisenhower Theater, 7:30 p.m.

December 30, 2006 - The Light in the Piazza - Opera House, 7:30 p.m.

January 13, 2007 - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? - Eisenhower Theater, 7:30 p.m.

March 3, 2007 - Carnival! - Eisenhower Theater, 7:30 p.m.

Plus one other play in June.

Monday, October 16, 2006

Twelve Angry Men

Twelve Angry Men was written in 1954, but it is still emotional and relevant today. Twelve men, in 1954, trying to decide the guilt or innocence of a teenager who was accused of murdering his father. Reviews from the Washington Post and Washington Times are on the Kennedy Center website, so I will not repeat them here. I had seen the movie, starring Henry Fonda, several times, and found myself interested in the way the protagonist found fault with the arguments of the District Attorney and eventually convinced his fellow jurors of the teen's innocence. Of course, the play is not about a trial and the deliberations of a jury, but about the way in which our life experiences and prejudices affect the way we think and feel about a situation. The play is about confronting those prejudices and overcoming them, at least for a moment. Because I had seen the movie several times, and knew that it was an emotional, angry play, I was very hesitant to go to the play. I like to be entertained and made to feel good by the entertainment that I pay for. I like to feel happy. I like musicals. I do not like to pay money to see anger or other deep emotions. This play is about anger. However, I have season tickets to the shows at the Kennedy Center, and this play was one of the ones in the package, so I went. And again I soon found myself deeply interested in the intellectual puzzling out of the case, and the anger was not so much a distraction. The actors were wonderful, with Richard Thomas playing the Henry Fonda part, and George Wendt playing the role of the jury foreman. In addition, the play is one act, and less than two hours long, which made it much more manageable to me. At the end, the actors received a well-deserved standing ovation, and I was pleased that I had gone.

Sunday, July 24, 2005

Mr. Roberts, April 3, 2002

Last night, I saw the play "Mr. Roberts" at the Kennedy Center. This play was on Broadway in 1948, and it is about men on a cargo ship in the Pacific Ocean during the second world war. I think the play is supposed to be a comedy, although it really was not funny to me. As a comedy, the play is supposed to be shallow, a light-hearted look at the war. To me, it is a characterization of what we think of when we think of sailors during the war -- a bunch of very aggressive young men, who complain constantly on the ship, and get drunk and fight and complain and fight some more. Although they talk constantly about women, they have no contact with women except a prostitute once in awhile. Mostly they drink and fight. Not a very attractive play.