Tartuffed!

I was lucky to have been invited to Rapid Descent's version of Moliere's Tartuffe by a Ko-llaborator and  friend who was performing in the piece. It was directed by Megan Finlay, who formed the company two years ago, to explore the combination of movement and text with live music. Tartuffe is a classic French comedy, first staged in 1664 and censored by the king and archbishop of Paris on the grounds of the questionable virtue of the swindler, Tartuffe. Rapid Descent's Tartuffe was playful and precise. It was whimsey and rhyme wrapped in an exaggeratedly physical container. The performers were working in sync to complete tumbles over and under couches, out windows, and through each other's arms. All the while this near constantly choreography continued, the performers were delivering precise and rhyming text. Meandering through the scenes was a trumpet player, playing music for the audience and sometimes playing with the performers in the scenes. The speed and tension of the play just, worked. The characters were directed and bold and the energy of the piece flowed fast from one scene to the next.

The show had some notable performances. Brian Livingston as Tartuffe managed to sleeze and ooze over the stage at Elmire, Orgon's wife. He had a loose and open physical language punctuated by moments of tension and rapt prayer. Orgon, played by Zack, simpered and hyperventilated in one moment then gracefully tumbled and flowed the next. Addie Ulrey as Dorrine held the first act of the play together with her quick delivery, steady energy, and witty physical banter with the musician onstage.

The space, Shotwell Studios, which lends itself to dance pieces and small theater well, was reconfigured and the back wall painted a bright (almost garishly so) color, but it worked to create the livingroom wall, with windows and all. The couch the company used for the piece must have been forged in the fires of Mordor, because it took a beating! They stomped, fell, lept, skipped, stood, jumped and tumbled over and onto that couch.

The crowning moment of the piece was immediately after the intermission. The trumpet player had set up a series of live loops of trumpet to start out the piece. One by one the performers filed onto stage and began performing a series of movements without words, which I quickly realized were the exact movements from the first act. They performed a fast take of every single movement from the first act at a blinding pace and it was hysterical.  They say comedy is drama sped up, but what happens when you speed up comedy? This great piece of theater, that's what.

I will keep my ear to the ground for Rapid Descent and I hope to see more from this emerging company.

Making it Dutch

Puss n' Boat, Gay Frits, fancy beer, and lots of boats. Those are things that you might find in The Netherlands, or in my case, things I found in Amsterdam. The canals of the city reminded me of the Beirut song, by the same name. People seems to smile more there than in France (I know, I know, but I think the smiling has more to do with the culture than the pot.) There were blessed, blessed Thai food places, that served amazing, and spicy food, sans cheese, wine, or baguette.Bikes, bikes, and more bikes crowded every corner, and they had these hourly bike rentals that we have seen all over France and England as well.

Overall, Amsterdam seemed like the kind of place I could spend more time, with people who spoke my language and shared some of my tastes and values. I have put together some of the highlights in a photo collage, for your viewing pleasure.

Puss n' Boat is a cat adoption houseboat in Amsterdam. It's totally cute and filled with cats! I saw it because  Alan and I ended up on Amsterdam's St. Nicholas Boat Club on a historic boat. The boat ride was not much of a tour, but just a normal guy who took us around the canals who liked to use the boat in the off time.

It was also gay pride in Amsterdam. I have a questionable photo below of some gay frites. Just tilt your head to the left and look toward the pink to read the sign in the photo. We heard some live house music with a vocalist which was extraordinarily loud, but kind of cool.

Also, take note of the image of  Rasputin beer. This is the Dutch Rasputin beer, from Brouwerij De Moulen, not the American Northcoast Brewers. one. The barkeep told us that De Moulen was sued by Northcoast over the name Old Rasputin, so they had to release their Rasputin beer in the States as a different name. They released it as Disputin. Kind of genious!

Ana Peru, Paris's newest patron saint

The thing about art is that it is ephemeral. Sometimes what seems progressive on minute is old hat the next. The street artists like banksy, become the next creative institutions.

Be that as it may, I thought I would share a couple of the images I saw throughout the left bank, on buildings and walls and windows. There is the image of the girl. Placed next to Shepard's obey on one wall, she becomes the latest image of big sister watching the Parisian streets. She is definitely a stencil, like andre the giant in "obey." Unlike obey (pictured in the second image up top) she is weeping red over her face, she is something more sinister. Also, in her solo incarnation she bears the tag, "Peru ana ana Peru." This little tag showed up all over Paris. Not sure if it is a female monomer, but it somehow worked with the woman it was written on.

I like to think of thst image of the weeping woman as Ana Peru, Paris's newest patron saint. Ana Peru has come to lead Paris toward a future where women can become world renowned grafitti artists and our street art watches us with compassion rather than commanding us to obey.

Parisian Street Performance

Parisian music and performance is everywhere: on the steet, on the metro, on then bank of the seine. Performers playing classic accordion music, upright pianos, marching band music, and even fire spinning.

Paris is full of accordion music. That is just a given. On the the train into the city I saw two people performing traditional french accordion music. Kind of Beats random people asking for money on the Bart train in San Francisco.

The very next day I caught a glimpse of this adorable Parisian old woman dancing to street music. Tres Bon!

One of the most exciting things I saw was Boula Matari, a Parisian marching band. They were playing on the bank of the Seine. They gave San Francisco's Extra Action Marching Band a run for their money with song covers like the Beatles, Magical Mystery Tour. Check out the video I took on you tube.

One magical night we stumbled across the courtyard of Notre Dame, only to find two fire spinners performing. A young woman using fire poi and fire hoop with grace and dexterity. Also a young man with speed energy moved through a number of throws and figure eights with fire poi and something I had never seen before: firework poi. Here is a video of this spectacular show