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Notes: Shirley Valentine

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Dear theater-goers,

Welcome to Shirley’s world, a place where the most extraordinary ordinary person can admit her failure, give in to despair, fight back, and finally, with brilliant humility and a wicked sense of humor, summon the courage to change everything as potently as any hero in the canon of Western literature.

I’ve been watching Chris Decker every evening create this world, inch by inch, tear by tear, guffaw by… Somehow it’s become my amazing privilege to be the observer of a big act of alchemy by a truly gifted and skilled artist. I have not been a very objective observer in these rehearsals—ordinarily I’m obsessed with arcane matters of cadence, movement and timing but lately, weeping and laughing, I’ve found myself thinking more about—for instance—how men and women talk with each other, how our lives depend on it.

Chris has taken me to a much deeper place than I expected to visit with this play. She has made me a huge fan of Willy Russell, and I feel like I have found a lifelong friend in Shirley Valentine.

Notes on Macbeth

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We have a truly remarkable collaboration going! First of all, the cast itself, a wonderful team of actors and artists is there every day, working together on the scenes, on the set, on costumes and sound. Very different from the usual compartmentalizing of these tasks–and the results are stunningly effective, considering our tiny budget–and emerge from the story itself since it’s the participants who are creating the whole thing. The scenes of violence are well on their way, with the aid of a formidable arsenal of weapons practically donated by Shakespeare & Co, and they are terrible and heartbreaking. The story itself seems to be showing us exactly what to do in the Hall, which is slowly transforming into a Macbeth landscape–and we end each evening feeling regenerated by the privilege of working together on this compact perfection of a play. We are way ahead of schedule and will be starting a long series of run-throughs soon, so we should be in very good shape by opening.

On top of that, John Sutton, an amazing photographer, has been shooting the entire process from the first reading, and we’ll end up with a complete and beautiful record of the process, which we are thinking of turning into an on-demand book that could serve all kinds of purposes. David DeVries will be shooting video… This is the theater working at its absolute best!

Sense & Nonsense

Sense and nonsense are equally subject to critical scrutiny, but it is perhaps more difficult to develop standards for good nonsense. One has to acquire a sense of it. The scenes of The Tennis Court Oath… arose out of a course in site-specific writing. The writing, which is all by the actors themselves, except for small contributions by Shakespeare and Yeats, began with meditative observation of each site. Characters and situations thus came out of the ground, out of the sky. In compilation, revision and rehearsal, good sense and nonsense were judged less by thought than by sensory perception. We tried to keep what smelled good, what rang nicely in the ear.

Notes: Macbeth

Notes on Macbeth

It’s been a great pleasure working on this play with this wonderfully generous cast and crew. We found that the play’s famous darkness is balanced by how beautifully the story is told–and that buoyed us through the long nights of rehearsal.

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In this production we decided to focus on the inner lives of the Macbeths themselves. This allowed us to double- and triple-cast all the other parts and relocate some of the scenes in the bedroom and in Macbeth’s fitful dreams. Once he gives in to his wife’s terrible need, he will “sleep no more.” As the events unfold, it becomes clear that something as commonplace as a good night’s sleep is worth more than all the kingdoms in the world. I wanted the Macbeths to be young, in a time of life when sexual emotion is at its strongest, so that the core of the problem resides right down the middle of the marriage bed. If grotesque ambition is a disease that leads not only to general chaos but to pain and madness, as is the case in Macbeth, it might do well to look deeper, through the lucid eyes of the perpetrator, to find the roots of the disease. And he speaks of it clearly, right to us, regularly throughout the course of his downfall. Thank you for giving him someone who will listen.

Truth be damned! Amadeus Pick of the Week.

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Truth be damned! Playwright Peter Shaffer didn’t make any grand effort to stick to the facts for his 1979 masterstroke, “Amadeus,” and we thank him for that. The Catholic guilt and rage for revenge seething underneath Antonio Salieri’s powdered wig is much more interesting than any quiet courtly tiffs. And the chance to see Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart acting more like his Van Halen namesake than a regal composer is reason enough to see the play. Shaffer, the poison pen behind “Equus” and “Lettice and Lovage,” knows how to find comedy in the dark, and “Amadeus” has laughs amidst the jealousy and pain. Jeannine Haas directs for The Theater Company at Hubbard Hall. 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday, Hubbard Hall, 25 E. Main Street, Cambridge, 677-2495, $15-$25. Through May 27.