here's my response to our art event this week. it was a play based on a russian novel called The Brothers Karamazov:

Wow. Just wow. The Brothers Karamazov was so full of different themes that I find it hard to start a response. I think the easiest way would be to start with the technical aspects of the show.
I love black box theatres! You can do so many cool things with them. Theatre in the round is one of those things. When I saw that that was how this show was set up, I got excited. They did a pretty good job of blocking the show so that the actors played to all sides. Some of the scenes were too far in the corners for everyone to see them well, but it being only preview, hopefully they fix that.
One other thing that bothered me were some of the costumes. Some of them looked like they could be period costumes. Others were fairly modern. It was distracting when I noticed Ivan was wearing jeans. It bothered me for half of the show. But then someone else pointed out that a lot of the costumes looked like they all just went shopping at Hot Topic. After that, I began to wonder if that was, in fact, the concept. That would mak Madamee Khokhlakov's bright red hair make more sense.
The actors all did pretty well. The man who played Ivan was my favorite. He was so captivating during the court scene. The intensity, the way he was trembling, was all the more powerfu because he was so calm and laidback throughout the rest of it. And Dimitri's passion was done well. Sometimes I thought Alyosha was too softly played, But it seemed to fit with his monkish qualities. I felt bad for that character because everyone else always came to him, only trusted him. How hard would that be? But he always keeps hhis cool, even during his "rebellion."
There was so much in this show. Probably too much. 3 1/2 hours is a long show. It was hard to keep focus. I think they trid to carry over as much as they could from the book, but you can't do that in theatre and still keep it coherent as well as interesting. While the themes were all interesting, and kept me thinking, it became disconnected. I can't even remember now all of the thoughts I had while watching it.
But I do remember one big one, and it's my favorite. From Ivan's poem scene. "I believe in God. I just don't accept the world he created." How often have I struggled with that myself! What do you do when the God you believe in doesn't seem to care about his creation? That has to be where social justice steps in, where we take matters into our own hands. As long as we do it in a moral way, following God's guidelines, what could go wrong? Sadly, a lot still.
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would write more but i'm really tired and have a headache. no energy or motivation. had a good weekend, though. same old stuff of going out and eating food and seeing people and watching movies and laughing at stuff. going to bed now.