Life is Still a Dream

It seems sometimes as though life turns in circles, like a dream... Earlier this year, I brought Sheila Callaghan's Fever/Dream to the students of Warren Wilson College. It is, of course, an adaptation of Calderon's classic, Life Is A Dream. Callaghan's brilliant take on the original was to mine its plot for contemporary themes related to the competing unrealities of corporate life and new electronic media.

Now, I've made plans to spend a night in New Mexico to see the premiere of the contemporary opera version by composer Lewis Spratlan. Spratlan won the Pulitzer Prize for the work, as presented in concert, but the upcoming Santa Fe Opera production is the premiere of the whole. Spratlan was my professor at Amherst College way back when, and I heard about the opera then. I've always wondered when it would find its way to the stage. So, it's oddly circular for me personally that I'll hear the work just before returning to Amherst myself.

A nifty NYTimes article about Spratlan and the opera is here. Could it be that the opera is finally having its debut (and Callaghan's play was so successful) because life today can seem so virtual, so dream-like?

Of course, I could be wrong, and mostly life is more circuitous than circular. It may be fitting that I'll be going to Santa Fe by way of Los Angeles, where I'll be directing Much Ado About Nothing for Independent Shakespeare Company. On second thought, that's a circle, too: I was in their inaugural production of Henry V on the lower east side more than a decade ago, before all this virtual nonsense was even dreamt of...

All that has nothing to do with this show, but it's refreshing to think that what is old can be new. And it's getting standing O's (yes I know how self-promotional that sounds! but hey, I'm packing and need a lift).

EXTENDED!

What the Butler Saw has been extended through June 6!

Read the rave here. If you are in the Asheville are, tix are available here.

Take a Peep

Amanda, the managing director for NC Stage, found this picture of a "What The Butler Saw" machine online. According to the source, these "tourist amusements used a set of flicking cards containing sequential photographs to simulate moving pictures; they were cheap attractions in the entrances to indoor amusement arcades on piers or on the seafront. They tended to contain quaint and voyeuristic flicks: a typical one still in use at Southend pier in 1963 had a butler peeping through a keyhole to see his lady employer showing her ankles and voluminous bloomers." The machine below may from the Edwardian era.

As an example of the inspiration for the title of Orton's last play, this photograph symbolizes Orton's was interest in the tension between exposure and voyeurism on a multiple levels.

In the well-known incident, Orton was arrested for withdrawing books from his local lending library, altering photos and captions, and returning the books -- a kind of vandalism, but one which turned unsuspecting library patrons into voyeurs and consumers of satire. To complete the picture, Orton sometimes spied on people as they looked at the altered books, to see their reaction...

When Joe Orton was jailed for defacing the books in his local library, the sentence (at least as described in retrospect) was considered harsh. Orton speculated the sentence for him and his boyfriend were stiff because of their sexuality. Orton credits his experience in prison with a revitalized conviction (no pun intended) that the power structure was thoroughly corrupt -- and with a new sense of freedom and courage in his writing.

Ironically, the books that Orton and his lover, Halliwell, creatively vandalized, are now preserved and on exhibit in the same library in Islington from which Orton first withdrew them.

You can see images of some of the altered book pages and dustjackets here, and the story of the incident here.

While some folks see What The Butler Saw as a mere farce, others see a more radical project behind Orton's work. I'm not sure that the play should feel like Pinter, but an interesting opinion about the playwright and current perceptions of him is here.

A review of our current production of Orton's What The Butler Saw has been published here.

pRiCk Up YoUr ReArS (e)

Have you seen the bio pic about Joe Orton, Prick Up Your Ears?

It's rentable (or Netflixable), but in the meantime, here's a link to a YouTube installment:



For info on the current Asheville production of Orton's What The Butler Saw, go here.

How would you define Ortonesque?

This is a nifty poster from 1975 Royal Court Theater revival of What The Butler Saw, recalling Orton's 'crime' of using creative cutouts to alter library books (and decorate his flat). The revival resurrected Orton's reputation, following the rather unsuccessful 1968 production of the play -- and Orton's grisly murder...

To find out more about Mr. Orton and his last, especially brilliant, play, go here.

Of course, the most direct way is to come to the theater!