April 6th, 2014 → 9:56 am
“We will meet, and there we may rehearse most obscenely and courageously.” – A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Went to a production of Noises Off last night (after a nine course meal that included fiddlehead ferns – my new favorite vegetable). It’s a play about a play; a comedy about the mishaps and mistakes that can take place behind the stage and in rehearsal. Hilarious!! I recommend it to anyone wanting a laugh and needing a night off.
Filed under: Blog & Literature/Theatre/Art
April 4th, 2014 → 8:30 am
“A good sherris-sack hath a two-fold
operation in it. It ascends me into the brain;
dries me there all the foolish and dull and curdy
vapours which environ it; makes it apprehensive,
quick, forgetive, full of nimble fiery and
delectable shapes, which, delivered o’er to the
voice, the tongue, which is the birth, becomes
excellent wit. The second property of your
excellent sherris is, the warming of the blood;
which, before cold and settled, left the liver
white and pale, which is the badge of pusillanimity
and cowardice; but the sherris warms it and makes
it course from the inwards to the parts extreme:
it illumineth the face, which as a beacon gives
warning to all the rest of this little kingdom,
man, to arm; and then the vital commoners and
inland petty spirits muster me all to their captain,
the heart, who, great and puffed up with this
retinue, doth any deed of courage; and this valour
comes of sherris.” – Henry IV
No wonder Queen Elizabeth gave the pope a gift of whiskey at their meeting yesterday. Originally I had thought the gift rather odd for a religious man, but Shakespeare expounds the virtues of alcohol so thoroughly I feel like getting a drink myself right now!
Filed under: Blog & Politics/Politicians
April 2nd, 2014 → 6:02 am
“We […] alone will sing like birds i’ the cage:
When thou dost ask me blessing, I’ll kneel down,
And ask of thee forgiveness: so we’ll live,
And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh
At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues
Talk of court news; and we’ll talk with them too,
Who loses and who wins; who’s in, who’s out;
And take upon the mystery of things,
As if we were God’s spies: and we’ll wear out,
In a wall’d prison, packs and sects of great ones,
That ebb and flow by the moon.” – King Lear
King Lear was recently performed in the Zaatari Refugee Camp, in Jordan. Hearing about it I pictured a sun-swept, bone-dry, dust-encircled platform with thin, but passionate refugees voicing their sorrows and hopes upon the stage. Acting in their wall’d prison. I wish I could have seen it.
Filed under: Blog & Literature/Theatre/Art