There’s new stuff for Moira to worry about today.
Tag: facebook (Page 2 of 3)
Moira’s back
What’s in My Bad Mood?
I have woken up with a rage hangover this morning. I am still fuming about my night last night and I am not really sure where to even begin.
Let’s go with why I was motivated to start meganshead in the first place. I wanted to warn Capetonians about bad theatre (and cheer them on to see good stuff, it must be said). Now this one is particularly hard for me because of how I feel about The Kalk Bay Theatre. It is categorically my favourite theatre in Cape Town. It is independent, beautiful, brilliantly managed. It is where I love to see theatre and make theatre. I want the theatre to do brilliantly.
But now I need to say what I feel about the first half of the show that opened there last night, “What’s In a Name?”. And here is a warning; if you loved it, do not read further, because I am going to be saying some very harsh stuff.
Right up front, I was absolutely relieved to discover that there were two halves. This meant I could leave at interval without making a spectacle of myself. Everything I say will only be about the first hellish forty or so minutes, but I swear it is enough.
What’s In a Name is trying to be a cabaret(?) performed by Delray Burns and Roland Perold and directed by Garth Tavares, and apparently choreographed(?) by Delray. What it actually is is a completely random collection of ‘trying to be funny’ songs that have nothing to do with anything, including the meaningless title of the show. What it is trying to be is a showcase for two young performers (like a live showreel to offer what they can do), but what it becomes is a beyond irritating, badly sung, horribly characterised, cartoon version of itself. Hell on an audience, not in the least funny, and so badly done I was squirming in my love seat in the back row. Fifty Delray costume changes later (a light up bra being the only highlight, ‘scuse the pun), a hideous “lights up” audience participation section where I could not hide my disgust in the dark, a complete mafferation of two songs I usually think are quite clever, Henry Higgins from My Fair Lady and Coward’s Don’t Put Your Daughter on the Stage Mrs Worthington, and other tragic, inconsequential, murderously bad versions of other stuff (including Snoopy I think!), meant I had to escape.
I feel I need to explain here. I concede that there is often stuff that is “not my cup of tea”. I don’t get big, mainstream musicals. Yet, I can totally appreciate them (and have even loved one or two) when they are well done. It is true that a collection of random show tunes is not that cup of tea that I would choose to drink, but I am entirely capable of drinking it, and enjoying it, if it is just warm, sweet and well made. “What’s In a Name?” is not that cup.
I am going to lose friends here. Brand new followers of meganshead on twitter are going to be upset. Friends of the performers in the audience last night were “loving” the show, and even tweeted me about it. I am going to be branded a bitch. I am going to set myself up for the harshest criticism of my own work. I wrestled with whether I was going to do this at all. But when I woke up at the crack of dawn this morning and saw what a friend had inboxed me on facebook, and realised she felt the same, I felt I had to speak out. Sies. What’s In a Name? In this case, absolutely zero, zip, niks.
Then, on my drive home (just to put salt in my wounds) I happened to flick the radio on to 567. The minute I realised it was Kieno Kammies I should have switched to 5fm for some retarded pop, but I was negotiating Boyes Drive and didn’t change in time. The moron was introducing what was going to be his late night topic; a ‘scientific’ study where caged monkeys are going to be fattened up so said scientists can study obesity. Kieno thought this was a great idea because, and I quote, “have you seen the fat kids rolling around the lawns?”. I. Kid. You. Not. Kieno Kammies thinks that caging and force feeding monkeys (natural omnivores quite capable of maintaining their own healthy weight) and fattening them up is going to help us understand why children are obese. Maybe Kieno, they are obese because they are caged, overfed (usually with unhealthy processed crap that monkeys would never eat) by their parents, bored and under-exercised? I actually could not listen to him for one second more. I had fantasies of finding images of his own children, hoping they were as fat as houses, and then using them in my own experiments. The drive home from KBT is long when you are having these murderous thoughts while listening to Rehane singing …”sticks and stones will hurt my bones, but whips and chains excite me” as if she wrote those lines herself! Bah. Humbug.
Big Friendly has just written a real bitch post on his blog about how he hates and how he is going to cancel or wipe out or remove his face broek profile once and for all. (It needs explaining that he has been saying this ever since he signed up, over a year ago.) At least once a month he makes these threats, and then, after ‘liking’ a few things, calling me to look at photos of friends and family and cute children/animals, he forgets about it. Then some article in the media (which I haven’t actually even read properly) will remind him why he hates face cloth, and why they are stealing his stuff, and why they can’t be trusted etc, and his fudge book rage will kick in again.
Me, I am the exact opposite. I love face poep. I love it. I know what it is; a public(ish) forum, where I can be clever/silly/indulgent, a place where I can instantly connect with two friends I dreamt about, one in LA and the other in Switzerland. I can play Scrabble, waste time reading everybody’s status, or do proper work and networking. I can advertise on face snoek. I can show off my animals and my holidays. I can ask for advice. I can advertise, for shows, and for other people’s stuff that I support or like. I can imagine I’m introducing people to my strange musical tastes and I can ‘share’ causes. I can show support by joining a group or becoming a fan of a page. That’s all it takes. I can agree or disagree with my ‘friends’ in one sentence. I can choose how I look in my faceblock (profile pic). I heart face book. I just don’t know how to make those little heart shapes in the status place. And Big Friendly has warned me against those damn applications!
Vaudevi…wait a minute!
I was chatting to my friend today and he asked me what I thought about this new supper theatre thing that has opened up in Cape Town called Vaudeville, and my response was so clear that my brain said, remember everything and blog about it. So here I am.
I first became aware of it last week when I got back from my trip and I saw that a few of my friends had joined the , so I went to have a virtual look see.
And is it just me who thinks that the fabulous Richard’s Madame Zingara’s Theatre of Dreams has been ripped off and copied, even down to the emcee being the same Irit Noble?
I need to say at the outset that I am not a great fan of supper theatre. I hate having to perform while people eat, and I struggle to eat while people perform, but I loved Madame Zingara’s. I loved the spiegeltent, the costumes and even the circus acts, which had nothing to do with theatre and everything to to with theatricality. I loved the dressed up table staff, I loved the ‘other world’ that was created and I loved the detail of everything, including the menu.
I dunno. Seems like Vaudeville is pretty much a direct rip-off, with circus acts, a three course meal, and the same over the top styling, only in a building and not in a tent. Has anyone spent the R350 for a normal ticket (the VIP ones cost R395) and gone to check it out? I’d love to hear about it.
I haven’t been as regular on my blog as I would have liked. I have been busy (not an excuse since I managed before), I haven’t seen any theatre in the last while, which was always a reason to write, and I’ve been away, and am going away again next week.
But is so easy to maintain. I can let you know what’s on my mind, tell you where I am, do publicity for shows, like and comment on other people’s stuff, and keep a presence without much effort or energy. I tried , one up on it is only updates, and it was just too boring to do. I can update my facecloth status on my phone. I can facebroek all my friends and ‘friends’ and friends. I can play Scrabble with friends and strangers around the world (except for Canada and USA).
But I always remember that I have friends and ‘friends’ and friends. What this means is that I am aware that you can’t be selective about who will see your status, your notes, your Scrabble score, if you decide to publish it. It’s not hard to do; it’s like making an announcement with the knowledge that 350 odd (in my case) people could see it.
So I really can’t believe the simple idiocy of people who make friends with their bosses and co-workers and then post themselves drinking pina coladas while they’re on sick leave, or who put “my boss is so hideous” in their status!
More and more I read about people being fired for being bust on facebook. I have read amazing stories of people doing their own detective work; a woman found out who assaulted her in a bar, crooks who left restaurants without paying have been found and ‘outed’ on facebook and relationships have begun and ended in a single status update.
Of course we live our lives more publicly than ever before. All sorts of people can find, watch, follow and even stalk others on the internet, and a social networking site like facebum makes it so easy. But it’s still you who has to do it. You have to sign up, on, and do. You have to take responsibility and remember that in a moment of “how cute is that?” you made your granny/long lost cousin/boss/one-night-stand/old head boy your friend, “friend” or friend.
More musings on The Tent
So I’m sure you can guess what’s occupying my brain (and heart) right now. I am reflecting a little after day three of rehearsals, and again I am thanking the crazy gods of theatre for the sequence of events that has brought these amazing actors into the rehearsal space.
I have always had a bit of a problem with writers who direct the plays that they have written, and here I am, doing just that. But, I have to say, I’m loving it. This work (of rehearsing) is so complex and layered, and so much more than what is on the page, that it is so exciting fleshing it out. And there is also the luxury of time to do it; this isn’t a rush job.
Naturally, while we are focusing so strongly on the making of the play, there is not enough time for me to market the thing. I hope people will want to come and see it. It’s amazing how I can give myself things to worry about hey? Obviously there is on Facebook. And I’m writing about it here, on meganshead. Doing last year’s showcase has helped get the word out there a bit. and a cast of eight will at least have friends and family to see it.
Ok, I’m going to let myself worry about something else now. Until tomorrow, day 4. And, I’m loving it.