Alice

Gesher Theatre's Alice (http://www.gesher-theatre.co.il/en/PRODUCTIONS/SHOWS/ALICE) is a thought-provoking take on Lewis Carroll and on Alice Liddell ("inspired by the writings of Lewis Carroll; Play by Roee Chen; Directed by Yehezkel Lazarov"). A few months ago I read a biography of Charles Dodgson which included long sections about Alice Liddell, and this affected my reaction to the play in ways Chen and Lazarov probably did not expect. In their play Alice is told that Carroll wrote about his own creation, but judging from Lazarov's talk after the presentation, this play is about the real Alice as well. Yet the real Alice Liddell had three children while the Alice in this play laments with her husband that they have none. Alice Liddell lived an active life, uncrippled by any trauma she may have received from Dodgson photographing her nude. In the play, she is seriousy injured. The grief Alice Liddell must have felt at the loss of two of her three sons in WW I -- unconnected as this was with Carroll -- has no part in the life of Chen and Lazarov's Alice. But perhaps the play is about how we would see Carroll's creation if she had grown up. The play has the fictional Alice raped, pulled from a modern view of the nude photography, but from what, either in the books or in Alice Liddell's life, might we get the idea that Alice would take drugs?

I would have liked it differently if I had known less.

Copyright 2016 Jane Fox

Iolanthe

Encore Theatre's production of Iolanthe was one of the best I've seen and heard. Their articulation was so clear I understood almost every word, including the topical additions never heard before. Like other contemporary productions, this one gave microphones to softer-voiced singers. It worked. Unless you looked for the mic, you couldn't tell which of the principals had them.

Copyright 2016 Jane Fox

Theater Games

Each member of the improv trio said one word, repeat. You've probably seen improv troupes create a scene this way.

In Hebrew, "and when I saw" is a single word. So is "and at my house."

Copyright 2015 Jane S. Fox

Annie Get Your Gun in Jerusalem

Program notes for a community theater group's production of Annie Get Your Gun apologized for the play's depiction of Native Americans and women. I have a feeling there were a few changes in the script. Although they made refernces to squaws, characters addressed these women winth honorifics: Mrs. Littlefoot. Sitting Bull was the most admirable character, and I wondered whether the original script had him reading Annie's letter to her while she was illiterate and generally being the wise old man.

The character most maligned was Frank Butler, protrayed as an attractive male chauvanist pig. The accounts I've read say the real Frank recognized Annie's value to the performance from the start and had a relationship with her whose equality was remarkable for the time.

Copyright 2015 by Jane S. Fox