Monday, March 21, 2011

Plays and Movies

Plays that are movies are no longer plays but that's a formality. A play made into a movie misses so much of the play. (Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet is the exception.) The theatre experience is missing, and I think that is especially important to a play. If you love plays you should support local theatre. (Ok, stepping off my soap box.)

I did such a thing the other day. I went and saw Much Ado About Nothing, Desert Rose Theatre made it their own. I had to rethink movie plays. Some are just so far from how I feel about live theatre.  The connection to the art is strained. Play writes are in my mind more brilliant than screen play writers because they have to write around a stage and space is limited. The show I saw used every bit of stage and never lost it's imagery because of it. The director Katherine Stewart understood the importance of less is more in her staging and it paid off.

My advice, go see plays. Don't just watch the movie version. It's like watching the movie instead of reading the book. Tsk. Tsk. I will save that post for another day. My point: Theatre is better. (Obviously, good theatre companies are a must.)

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