First off, the play: As I told Professor Drabik after the event, I survived. The play was not one of my favorite performances, despite, no doubt, being thoroughly enjoyable. What the play was, however, was absolutely mind-blowing. “Six Characters” played with the boundaries of fiction and reality. Were the characters actual people within in the context of the play or were they actual characters come to life, to finish their unwritten stories? Were the Boy and the Little Girl dead? Had they already died ? Was it their function to die? These are the questions that plagued my mind after the show and I still find it hard to completely answer them. If I were to pick a single scene that represented all of my confusion, it would have be the penultimate scene, where the Boy shoots himself. Both the Actors and the Characters crowd around him and conflicting shouts of “Reality?!” and “Fiction” can be heard from behind the curtain. The play made me question everything that was happening on the stage. In particular, the Father’s dialogue about real life being the illusion while “characters” had an actual, set reality struck a chord with me.
Now, the place: Brooklyn Academy of Music Harvey Theater. I was not a particular fan of this venue. The seating was the first thing that I noticed. The seats felt rather small and I had the distinct sense that, should I lean forward a little, I would tumble all the way down to the stage. More so than anything else, the supertitle set-up bothered me. Constantly flicking my eyes from the supertitles to the many elements on the stage made me feel as if I was missing a majority of the performance and distracted from the play itself. The stage set-up, however, was a plus. Being flat, rather than elevated, the stage seemed perfect for the kind of play that “Six Characters in Search of an Author” was.
Haha, I actually like the place. It had a very antique feel. I agree the seats were slightly uncomfortable, and the people in front of me kept on moving left and right, plus the stairs of doom- that was a good 80 steps, but I love the brick-feel of the place. I guess it was kept like this on purpose to preserve the site.
Chris, I do agree about the brick-feel. It felt very “in-time” with the setting of the play and provided a great contrast to our other venues. My main dislike, I guess, would be the set-up of the subtitles; I thought it distracted from the story a lot.
I agree that the subtitles were super irritating and distracted from the action in the play. I tried paying attention to the subtitles but at those moments I lost understanding about what was happening on stage. As a result, I quit looking at the subtitles and simply followed the action of the characters and let them speak to me with their actions. I do understand some French, so it was a bit easier. But I still did not understand the entire context of the play, I only understood as much as I could discern from the actions of the characters. By the way, the actors and their acting were absolutely wonderful and very convincing. They seemed very casual in what they were doing.
As to the Harvey Theatre, I disagree with your disapproval of the location. Indeed, the seats were not the most comfortable and clean, and the location itself looked very antiquated. I thought that it was something new and nice for a change. It’s distinct from all the other theaters with their glamorous chandeliers and red carpeting. The Harvey Theatre is rebellious against the notion that theatre must be a glamorous place.
The staging was remarkable. I realized that the stage was on the same level as the orchestra seating. I wonder what it felt like to sit in the orchestra literally amongst the play and its actors?
It must’ve been incredible! When I saw the Manager walk off the “play” area right to the border between the performance and the audience, my eyes opened wide. Later, I realized that this staging and the Manager being so close to the edge could be interpreted as a literal blurring of lines between fiction and reality.