Fourth Of July/Barbecue Day/Country Music Day/Tomato Festival (Texas)/Flag Day (Alaska)/Freedomfest (Arkansas)/Independence From Meat Day/Sidewalk Egg Frying Contest (Arizona)/Rath Yatra Festival
2008-07-04 @ 11:40 p.m.

I attended The Minister's Wife?! with Eugene, against my better judgement. Not that I didn't want to go, but I really should have been getting more sleep before the OBS course tomorrow. I wasn't supposed to be free anyway, until Claudia cancelled dinner and Eugene suddenly sent an SMS at a ridiculously late hour yesternight. Anyway, to summarise, I thought the production was okay, if a bit rough around the edges. It felt like something between a school play and a professional staging. I really enjoyed the first act, which had great comic timing, although the character of the maid was grating after her first appearance onstage. Nothing to do with the actress, I guess, just the way the character was written. The twist after the intermission, which had the original play supposedly being banned, and the very way in which the intermission was announced, were interesting touches, but not particularly well-handled. It's the kind of intrusion into real life that happened a lot with The King Lear Project, just that here the incursions were too bluntly and directly made. Valid points were raised about censorship, although contrary to what was asserted, I do think that the issue has been done to death. Not that I wasn't entertained by the verbal sparring in the second act, but I just felt like nothing was being added to the censorship debate. That and some of the cheap shots at the government throughout the play were being so blatantly exploited for laughs that I got tired after a while. I like balance, even one is being critical about something, which is what I felt was lacking here tonight. Nonetheless, it was a commendable effort, and I will be interested to see what this theatre company will bring to the local arts scene in future.

This week:

Freedom Week