Hot Takes from 1599

I saw a play last Saturday: As You Like It. Adapted as a musical (which is common with this work) and put on as community theater. The basic plot is this: infighting among siblings and friends is terrible for them and everyone else and can destroy whole towns and span generations. Eventually the dicks say they have a change of heart, everyone else takes their word for it, and like 8 people get married. As with all of these it does not address the violence inherent in the system, or the lack of agency for everyone except the rich dicks, or the often unsatisfactory outcome of marriage. But the other option is the one where everyone dies and the dicks don’t have to change, so you’re supposed to be happy about this plot line.

Despite the hopelessness of seeing 15th century social problems essentially unchanged in the 21st, it is one of the Shakespeare works I like best. The marriage plots are played for good fun against witty dialog, the cross dressing is meaningful to the message, and one of the themes is that honest engagement helps people work and live together much better than hereditary authority or personal charisma.

This adaption was framed by a playwright who was both in the scene and constructing it. The frame wanted to sell me a story about intergenerational progress, which fits the community theater theme but IMHO not the underlying play nor the context of 400 years of social stagnation. But it was a pretty small aspect of the performance and it technically achieved framing in a useful way.

The musical component was good. Much better than the tired Beatles adaption we saw in Vancouver last year, this version had original music by Shaina Taub. Instead of 4 minutes of nostalgic live cover for a song with lyrics vaguely related to the scene ¹Or worse, fraking Mama Mia, which just yells unrelated songs at you for no reason between scenes. Sometimes the make Pierce Bronson yell them even though he clearly is neither interested nor capable. And they made a sequel to that. you get an actual musical where the song is part what happens. Some of the better bits were a spontaneous boy band to support a love-striken young person (and reprised when the fool falls in love) and a piece where the name “Phoebe” (as secondary character from the marriage plots) was used alternately to mean “fuck over” or “love” (e.g. “I Phoebe you” or “You Phoebe’d me”) depending on context. There was also a great piece from the lead about how love won’t be like the thing you imagine from afar, and instead will be full of all the pain they accumulated before meeting you ²Shanda had all the feels about that one. Blaming the people you love for the way someone else hurt you years ago feels on target to you right now..

Like many modern production of AYLI this one started with wrestling. I think it came off very well. They played a few rounds of masked fighting that looked suspiciously like an episode of GLOW. Not as elaborate as professional productions ³This is one place the Bard of the Beach production really shined. They had a whole ring with ropes and started doing the wrestling shtick 20 minutes before the show started. I’ve seen but it had lots of heart and and a live camera for entrances from off-stage and interstitial and narrative music from the chorus.

But the part I liked best was the lion. They walked out the lion parade puppet from figure 2, danced around for a bit, made friends with the lead, and eventually had it fight a 15′ puppet snake. Just as I was being impressed by the coordination of the lion team they reared up onto their back legs and were exposed as acrobats. Suddenly the lion is two people stacked vertically, a dozen feet in the air, kicking a snake puppet.

The performances and costumes were all pretty good, particularly considering community theater and musical. I went to see L, who played as a wrestling fan in a black jacket, a forest hippie in neon colors, and sometimes as an inflatable deer. The leads were both solid, and appropriately earnest when they weren’t. Phoebe was a gay thirst trap in boots and crop top, and with her overall’d partner made an adorable big-little pair. I particularly appreciated her admission of having been Phoebe’d by the protagonist. The fool had an over the top blue and gold suit for most of the play but ended with a patterned white wedding suit that I would seriously buy next time I have need of a suit. My favorite was the duke though, who was dressed as a fabulous biker ⁴If you’re from the 90s in Wisconsin, think Storylords. Including the jack-booted henchmen. More sparkle but the same plan.. He yelled that his “doom is irrevocable” while wearing bedazzled cowboy boots and sunglasses and firmly convincing me that his only two moods were angry and disinterested.

So it was a good time. I got to see L for a minute afterward. I wore some warpaint to intimidate the old folks and it worked so well I forgot it was happening. One person in particular who I recognized by deduction but I assume didn’t know me was clearly unhappy with me; at the time I was trying to guess how they had identified me and what in particular they felt slighted about. But it was just my costume doing what I hoped it would – making old people I don’t want to talk to afriad of me and unable to keep eye contact.

Things happened today too. M popped in, having a pretty tough time. I’m glad you reached out. I’m told tomorrow will be different; I hope that’s true. In particular I hope you’re able to find a thing to make different, so you can feel more in control even as you continue to be stressed. Anything that gets your brain unstuck from the helplessness of passive endurance.

I talked with J about enameled pins and collections and stickers. About loss and fleeing and art. About the space between hoarding and homelessness and the ways they are the same. In theory they got my package today but they didn’t mention it. Did HA4H. Talked about color and decay and hot glue. Promised to share a story about finding color; that story will be sadder than they want but I’m going to write it anyway.

Talked with the artist ⁵Yana Yakubchik, who you can find in the usual places. This is the design from my pants: https://www.redbubble.com/people/yetzenialeiva/works/40718933-cotton-candy-confetti who designed my first pair of colored pants, helped them with feels about writing about their work, invited them to do HA4H with us. I was supposed to met with C but he slept through our timeslot. Got required day job done but just barely; I’m back on the queue next week but clear of SRs going in, which is always nice.

Worked out my own medical insurance (i.e. bypassed their fraudulent mishandling) and got a copy of another medical bill that made me irrationally happy as a sign of improved process and better coping.

Robots tomorrow. And prep for Shanda’s rescheduled date. Hopefully a mintute for Shanda to have the feels you kept bottled up during your busy week. I’d love to get a call on the schedule; 17 minutes over 5 weeks is not enough, and in particular I still need guidance on L matters. But I don’t want to demand, because I know stress is high; I don’t think a call will make that worse but worrying about it might.

Booksmart is still on my list. Feels about economic abuse. A story to match the fleeing helplessness. LI about oppression. New CPTSD reading. And the HA4H story about color. Lots of things still in the backlog. But it’s mostly feeling like prompts I want not homework I hate. It’s just still a high-stress week here, and progress on chores is eaiser than progress on feels and thinks.

ZiB

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Sent from a phone.

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