Wow. You know, I really dreaded going to see the Bald Soprano on a Saturday night. That Saturday my line up looked pretty dull. I was required to attend a tech fair in the city that morning and then wait several hours for the showing of the Bald Soprano. Tech fair wasn’t all too invigorating, and as a result I was already exhausted by noon. Do you think I wanted to see a play in the city that night? It’s a rhetorical question however, I’ll still tell you no only because I want to take it all back. That’s right. I take all of what I said back. Except the bit about the tech fair, I’ll still give that to you. Now I’m doing this because I’m going to tell you that I loved every bit of the Bald Soprano, and that seeing the play made my Saturday better than what it previously was. I apologize for the sucker punch, but it really was a great turn of events for me! Of all the outings we’ve had for our Arts in NY Seminar, this one really was the most worthwhile.
The Bald Soprano is a satirical play that catered really well to my tastes. I happened to have enjoyed and understood (for the most part) the nonsensical parody that took place in the Pearl Theater. The man who wrote this play, Ionesco, had a real message under all the nonsense. Using the upper class London suburbanites as characters in his play, Ionesco was trying to show us the triviality of their speech while at the same time, he was mocking language itself. All the gibberish spoken at the play, was intended, purposeful, and very much hilarious! I followed every line word by word. It was just that entertaining for me. One of my favorite scenes (all of the scenes are my favorite!) happened to be when everyone gathered around for story time. The fire chief’s story of the head cold really had me on a ride. It was perhaps the most impressive piece of dialogue in the whole play -besides the ending of course. I can’t imagine the work required in memorizing that long series of people. There were talented actors that day on stage, and I commend them, mostly for keeping their sanity and accent intact.
Aside from the explosive dialogue and movements, there was a lot of artistic presentation within the set. It took me a while, but halfway through the play I noticed that the whole set was upside down. The ground was painted as the sky and everything was just off. This couldn’t be a coincidence because well I wouldn’t use a randomly generated set of assorted things as a set unless I had a particular reason for it. I think the purpose of the set was to compliment the non-linear plot and the chaos that was occurring. Maybe perhaps it conveyed the message that these upper class suburbanites lived in an upside down world (which I certainly would not argue).
I believe that this play, despite being a parody of suburban upper class in London, still fit in with the audience of New York. Whether you’re in New York or London, there will always be people who are in the upper class that have the frivolous conversations Ionesco is portraying in his play. When I looked around the audience in Pearl Theatre, I noticed a lot of the people were on the older spectrum of middle-aged. A good amount of them must have been in the upper middle class because some of them just looked the part, but who am I to judge? They enjoyed the play as much as I did or maybe even more.
The Bald Soprano hit a home-run with me! It didn’t do so well with others, but to each their own right? I found the cast to be talented, the set artistic, and the performance overall, hilariously entertaining. I certainly felt at home with the humor, and found myself bent over in laughter in nearly every scene. As such, I tip my hat to Ionesco, the actors, and the Pearl Theater. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Maecenas feugiat egestas lacus, nec mattis sem cursus ac. Fusce lorem erat, dapibus sed rhoncus vitae, scelerisque a dolor. Vestibulum quis risus mi, ac porta lorem. Donec gravida suscipit lectus in commodo. Suspendisse est nulla, volutpat vel laoreet quis, vehicula gravida risus. Phasellus sodales fermentum est, sit amet ullamcorper lectus feugiat in. Sed tellus arcu, sodales at molestie sit amet, interdum sed leo. Curabitur ligula odio, elementum ut egestas in, dapibus non nisl. Integer bibendum iaculis facilisis. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Pellentesque massa tortor, tincidunt vitae tempor quis, lobortis faucibus dui. Ut vitae aliquam diam. Nam velit arcu, tincidunt ut suscipit sed, varius vitae lectus.
