ZJU's "Blood For Macbeth" (review)

Michael Blomgren as Macbeth

This marks my fourth review of a play performed at Zombie Joe's Underground Theatre, the most recent Hamlet which premiered last week.

Blood of Macbeth opened this past weekend and makes for quite a different experience.  First and foremost, this is not a straightforward production of Shakespeare's play.  Rather, we get a surreal adaptation.  Literally, one dives into the unconscious, as if visiting someone's mind as they dream of Macbeth.  Images and ideas bleed into one another, with not-quite a stream of consciousness flow.  Not quite.

At the very start we discover what kind of world we'll be viewing.  Men in what look like prison (or perhaps asylum) garb beat a mannequin savagely.  Is this supposed to be a man.  Such I assumed.  Now that I think on it, though--was it?  Makes just as much sense to assault such an 'idol' or 'puppet' or 'symbol' as a person.  Even what seems like a (symbolic?) rape of the fallen figure makes a kind of sense.  Perfectly in keeping with the original, even.  Much of Shakespeare's plays that deal with royalty are about power.  Who has it, how did they get it, in which ways they might wield it, exactly who and why they lose it.  Power in this case symbolized in loads of ways.  By fire.  By the right to stand atop a blood-red box.  Mostly by obedience from others.  Also, by how others tolerate even welcome extreme behavior.

Soon another factor makes its appearance.  Or their appearance I should say.  The witches, called "the weird sisters" in the original text.  Far more than three this time.  And here we find a pattern worthy of note.  Not only are these witches the veritable Greek Chorus in terms of the play, but as well the only female characters to be found.

That's right.  No Lady Macbeth.  Or, more precisely, both Macbeth's have been combined into one character.  Michael Blomgren seems to be having a blast as a monarch whose real power derives from the sponsorship of the female side of the world.  When he's enthroned as King, for example, the men offer Macbeth a heavy masculine crown.  But the weird sisters (whom the men usually cannot see) offer a lovely little tiara.

He choose the tiara.  Yeah, 'tis hilarious.  But also makes perfect sense.  This Macbeth rules as both both King and Queen.

The bizarre resemblance to The Joker fits as well.  But that might be coincidence.

Either way, this souped up frenzy of a show doesn't really allow you time to think and try to figure stuff out.  Director Josh T. Ryan keeps the play going like a roller coaster, the gags and dreamlike digs more or less constant.  Interestingly (and I think tellingly) only one female cast member is really a character. Chelsea Kurtz portrays the Murderer, as something akin to a Geisha and an Indonesian dancer (the hand gestures seemed to echo such anyway).  She is the one who kills Banquo, not in the straightforward slaughter of the men, but by temptation and trickery.  For the record, she's funny.  The smile she effects says worlds about how this Murderer likes her job, gloats over how Banquo will die at her hand, because she knows things.  Things no one is supposed to know, but of course someone nearly always does.

Not for everyone, to be sure.  But among other things this production makes one of the best pieces of performance art I've seen in a long while.

Blood for Macbeth plays Saturdays @ 8:30pm and Sundays @ 3pm July 14-August 19, 2012 at Zombie Joe's Underground Theatre Group, 4850 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood  (818) 202-4120
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All photos courtesy of Zombie Joe

ZJU's Hamlet (Review)

At this point I usually say Spoliers Ahoy, but honestly that seems a tad pointless when writing about a 500-year-old classic.

Zombie Joe's Underground Theatre has mounted Shakespeare's most famous play for their 20th Anniversary.  Hamlet, Prince of Denmark remains a milestone in theatrical history.  Many classical actors of a certain type end up judged by their performances in the lead.  Those who've done so make up a veritable Who's Who of fame, running the gamut of types--John Gielgud, Edwin Booth, Lawrence Olivier, Richard Chamberlain, Dirk Benedict (I'm not kidding), Derek Jacobi, Kenneth Branaugh, Richard Chamberlain, Mel Gibson, Kevin Klein (my personal favorite), Keanu Reeves, Alec Guinness, etc.  Like the "Mona Lisa" it becomes tricky to see the play for what it is.  So much hooplah surrounds it, one almost pities the cast forced to try their hand.

Mind you, it remains a brilliant play in part because the roles prove so difficult.  For example, I've only seen one performance of Polonius ever that struck me as really good (Ian Holm, if you're interested).  The role fairly brims with traps for the actor.  On a certain level the man seems like a clown, yet remains a powerful and trusted counselor to Kings, one capable of admitting to a seeming terrible error in judgment to one of those Kings without really trying to defend himself.  Very, very tricky part.  ZJU's Polonius, like virtually every other actor I've seen play the part, failed to make him real.

But the most important role in this play remains the title character.  Get a good Hamlet and the rest of the cast need only deliver acceptable performances.  Rafael Goldstein is their Prince of Denmark--and he delivers!  Admirably!

Madness stands as a challenge to almost any actor.  The temptation to portray such as nonsensical ramblings remains great--not least in this role because Hamlet does exactly that.  He himself is pretends to be mad, spouting bizarre claims and ideas seemingly out of nowhere.  But the great secret of the role remains that he pretends at insanity while undergoing a genuine nervous breakdown--which he tries (often successfully) to hide.  Quite a balancing act for almost any actor.  Mr. Goldstein succeeds at it, and more achieves that which all too few actors (especially Americans, sorry to say) seemingly can--he makes Shakespeare's elevated speech his own.  Fundamentally, this means he knows what he's saying.  Alas, the young man portraying Horatio evidently did not.  I literally could not make out over half his lines.  Partially his diction sounded less crisp than I like, but there seemed a more fundamental problem.  He emoted, then let the words flow out of his mouth.  But that isn't how we talk.  Especially to each other.  Instead of concentrating on feeling, he frankly should focus on what he's saying and let the emotion flow from there.  (This is a common problem in actors doing Shakespeare--grabbing an emotion and in effect vomiting out the speech instead of talking.)

Maya Erskine has the enviable/daunting task of portraying Ophelia, one of the Bard's most difficult parts, mostly because of its length.  Or, more accurately, its brevity.  She has three scenes, one of which she spends insane.  Within those scenes she must convey the depths of her feelings for all the major characters in her life--father Polonius, brother Laertes, would-be lover Hamlet.  In effect, she gets two scenes to explain what drives her totally mad by the third.  Erskine might have missed a few opportunities here and there, but she accomplishes the part quite well.  No small feat!

Technically, she gets little help from her Polonius (again, one of the hardest roles the Bard ever wrote) or her Laertes.  This latter falls into much the same trap as the actor doing Horatio--lack of specifics.  My companion for the evening assumed Laertes and Ophelia to be lovers, not siblings.  A good example of how physical affection should feel differently based on specific relationships.  Likewise, because he played only the surface meaning of this lines, this young man's sudden confession and begging pardon at the end came out of nowhere.  He gave us no hint of any doubts, any mixed feelings on his part, the slightest clue he might do such a thing.  Granted, such is not easy given the structure of the play (I had a teacher once who insisted Shakespeare never got a chance to give this play a final draft) but it remains his job to do it anyway.

Given how most actors do Shakespeare, the rest of the cast did quite well.  In terms of casting, director Denise Devin quite accurately put the heavy guns in the roles where they belonged.  Almost everyone did at the very least a nice workmanlike performance, which while not deserving a lot of praise should still be commended.  Lots of actors in major films and t.v. shows didn't do half so well.  Hardly anyone didn't have some moments when they didn't shine, bringing vivid truth onto the stage with their talents and skills.  One in particular, Vanessa Cate, did a riveting job in each of four roles.

Hamlet plays Fridays at 8:30pm and Sundays at 7pm from July 6 through August 12, 2012 at Zombie Joe's Underground Theatre Group, 4850 Lankershim Boulevard, North Hollywood (818) 202-4120.  I strongly recommend this production as a superior one at its heart.

Prometheus (Review)

Spoilers ahoy!

Ridley Scott of course made his name as a director with science fiction and fantasy.  This included two of the finest science fiction films ever made.  Now after thirty years he returns to do a prequel to that early landmark about the challenges awaiting humanity in outer space.

Wait.  This sounds familiar.  But no, I'll be reviewing Prometheus, the (semi) sequel to Alien.  Not the horrific piles of mediocrity which emerged as the Star Wars prequels.  Different universe altogether.

Thank god.

Prior to seeing this film, I only viewed one trailer and then a handful of reviews complaining about how "nothing makes any sense" or (more tellingly) "it doesn't explain anything!"  That last really bothered me, because one of my favorite aspects of Scott as a filmmaker remains the way he asks questions, but leaves figuring out the answers to you.  Prometheus ended up no exception.

Okay, to begin here's my general review:

In essence this movie poses disturbing questions, forcing us to question even basic notions of what happens around us.  As a genre, it fits neatly into that of a science fiction thriller--with distinctly Lovecraftian overtones.  Much like Miskatonic University's expedition to the Antarctic in At The Mountains of Madness, the starship that gives this film its oh-so-symbolic title head out to the furthest and most inhospitable frontier humanity can reach.  In this case, a planet in a far star system.  Not, if you pay close attention, to the same world where the starship Nostromo came to grief in the first film.  Interesting, that.  Two archeologists, funded to the tune of a trillion dollars by the Weyland Corporation, uncovered evidence humanity origins somehow lie here, with an ancient race they've dubbed the Engineers.

Noomi Rapace plays Shaw, with Logan Marshall-Green as Holloway, her partner.  Idris Elba is Janek, Captain of the Prometheus, with Charlize Theron as Vickers, representative of the Corporation ("I'm here to make sure you do your jobs").  Michael Fassbender plays David, an android--arguably the most fascinating in a large cast of characters.  When we meet him, he's the only person 'awake' on board.  Has been for the past two years.  Among his regular activities are watching Shaw's dreams.  What a fascinating thing for an artificial life form to do!  Indeed, his position seems crucial to the whole story.  He asks Holloway what he came looking for.  The archeologist wants to know why these aliens made the human race.  But why did we make David?  But that jumps ahead a bit.  First, the crew revives, gets a briefing and heads for the planet whose atmosphere is almost right for humankind.  Almost.  Too much CO2 (carbon dioxide) to be safe for long.  Minutes at most.  On the planet's surface they find what looks to be an artificial structure.  Not quite a pyramid.  Almost.  Most certainly hollow...

Sure enough, they've found at the very least an outpost of the fabled Engineers--who apparently look like nine-foot tall human beings with no hair and little melanin.  Yes, their DNA matches our own.  But something happened.  Something involving a kind of dark slime.  An event that left a bunch of bodies strewn around.

Perfectly enough, as all this comes to light, the ship detects a massive storm en route.  Well, yeah.  In so very many ways.

Everyone will say--accurately enough--the film looks great and keeps you on the edge of your seat.  True!  Scott knows what he's doing as a director!  But despite the thrills and chills, the violence and chases and the like which pepper the story, I maintain here we have a layered tale of mystery, of ambition and frustration as we face up to our own origins (and ourselves).  Character moments abound, yet integrate into the plot seamlessly.  Everything about the relationship between Shaw and Holloway, for example, makes perfect sense.  We rarely see someone of her type in film--a scientist who is also a person of faith.  Usually, when we do, we meet a bag of platitudes.  No so here.  She holds onto her faith even amid genuine horror, real tragedy, growing terror.  In fact, she proves herself excellent under pressure.  People like that often end up with partners with a reckless streak (and boy, does Holloway have one of those!).  That she retains her faith, making the decision she does at the end, completes the portrait of her character.  Not a lady to blink in the face of danger, is Dr. Shaw.  Nor to shirk difficult choices.

In fact, her character seems perfect for this story!  Like the audience, she fails to get the answers she most seeks.  Why did the Engineers make us?  For what reason were they (or some of them) evidently planning on wiping us out?

Those make up the essentials.  Frankly a lot of the reviews of Prometheus I've been reading come across as written by children--or folks with the patience of children.  They obsess over why a pair of terrified women seeing something huge falling from the sky seemingly right on top of them don't make better choices (here's a clue--they PANICKED).  Or whine about not understanding why David spiked Holloway's drink (because he wanted to--wanted to see what would happen).

For what it is worth, here is my own interpretation of what happened, based entirely on what we see on the screen...

The title--Prometheus, the titan who stole fire from the gods and gave it to Man, and in return suffered unbearable punishment.  Not a coincidence, so it seems to my way of thinking.  From what we see, at least two groups exist among the Engineers.  One (viewed at the very beginning) did something in the primordial Earth to make us possible.  Accomplished with self-sacrifice for some reason, they left some kind of message behind--then or later--which Shaw and Holloway later found.  Another faction, those we see in the military base, use the same substance as the first but as a kind of weapon.  Notice how the first Engineer wears cloth robes?  But those on the base seem somehow bonded to their bio-mechanical environment?  The latter evidently plan on destroying us.  Why haven't they?  Methinks that seems fairly obvious--they've misused the black liquid and it destroyed them.  Not just here, but elsewhere.  Recall this is not the planet where the Nostromo finds the abandoned vessel in Alien, later terraformed in Aliens.  That ship was some other one, that suffered a similar catastrophe.

Recall also when the black liquid came into contact with those worms it made them stronger, more aggressive?  And how it did the same to people so exposed?  What we call the Alien of this film series seems to have begun as the result of that liquid sooner or later infecting the Engineers.  Amidst this problem, genocide against the human race took a back seat.

One wonders if the Engineers even survived, and if so, as what?

Peter Weyland, ambitious and single-minded, saw all of this in terms of his own survival.  Despite his grand plans and enormous energy which led him to create the corporation that continues to pop up in these stories--at heart he remains a selfish little boy.  One fascinating trope in the whole film is how David the android in effect has two parental units from which to pattern his behavior.   Weyland, who spends a trillion dollars and endangers who knows how many lives just to keep breathing--and Shaw, willing to sacrifice herself for the higher good, and in the end motivated by a desire to learn The Truth.

Just as humanity has two factions among its creators--the Engineers--it seems David sees the same in two different factions among his own builders--humanity.  Weyland and Shaw.  Both geniuses.  Each with indomitable will and vast courage.  But look at what they want!  Therein lies all the difference, all the reason for despair as well as hope

Methinks that pattern proves too pervasive to be mere coincidence.

Game of Thrones S2E2 "The Night Lands"

Spoilers ahoy!

As the second episode of the second season of Game of Thrones begins, elements of full-blown dynastic wars come into view.  The hunt continues for the late King Robert's illegitimate sons.  Along the way one of them makes an alliance of sorts with Arya Stark.  The Queen Regent and King's Hand--a sister and brother who hate one another--fence with each other, using humiliation as a tool.  Stannis Barantheon, brother of the late King, struggles to find a way to press his claim without violating his sense of honor.  Refusing to make common cause with either Robb or his own younger brother, he makes a further commitment to the sorcerous priestess Melisandre.  She promises to give him a son, the fact their efforts to do precisely that take place on a map of Westeros, knocking models of soldiers and ships and castles off said map--well, let us just say it seems a pointed metaphor.

Meanwhile Theon Greyjoy returns to the land of his fathers, the Iron Islands.  He expects a welcome, an appreciative ear to the idea he put into Robb Stark's head--help free the North from the South, and the North helps the Iron Islands to its own independence.  But Lord Balon, Theon's father, sees a soft foreigner not one of his own men.  He has his own plans.

So, for anyone keeping score, there are now four people claiming a crown:  Robb Stark, Stannis Barantheon, Renly Barantheon and of course Joffrey Barantheon.  Looks like a four-sided civil war is in the offing, while a long winter approaches.

Tempers, understandably, show signs of fraying.  Littlefinger perhaps shows this most chillingly when the woman he's put in charge of his brothel show unhappy at having seen a baby slaughtered by the royal guards.  But then, he'd just been threatened--foolishly if with style--by Queen Cersei.  Very foolishly, it seems to me.  Surely we all see that by now, yes?  Of all the people in King's Landing, he's one of the tiny handful one should never, ever underestimate.  As Ned Stark learned to his loss.  I can almost feel sorry for her.  Almost.  If she hadn't twisted her own child into a psychopath, sanctioned quite so many murders, in fact demonstrated a petty cruelty sheathed in elegant beauty.  Joffrey is after his mother's child.  He is but a more distilled version of her.

And I think both of them are out of their depth.

So is Tyrion,  But he's learning to swim.  He even shows a talent for it.

Beyond the Wall more problems brew.  A former member of the Night's Watch is gathering wildlings to him.  Dubbed The King Beyond The Wall (oops, make that FIVE kings) he's making plans.  In the midst of all this Samwell does something kind and brave and stupid and dangerous.  Maybe even right.  He seeks to rescue a girl who fears her father/husband will kill her baby if it turns out to be a boy.  After all, that is what he always does.

Meanwhile, beyond the Narrow Sea and deep in the Red Waste, Danaerys Targaryan loses what she said was her last hope.  She is of course wrong.  Have you noticed almost everyone in this story is wrong?  Sooner or later?  More often than not, in fact?  Kinda like real life.

A small detail that bears mentioning.  Westeros is huge.  George R.R.Martin describes it as roughly the size of South America.  So travel between the different parts remains slow.  A disadvantage for storytelling?  I don't think so.  Rather, it gives each episode a chance to focus upon a certain set of circumstances -- which is why we saw nothing really of Catelyn or Renly this week.

Having read the books, I can tell you my favorite character of them all should appear next week!
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