Whale and whale of a good time

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This afternoon, I saw the Whale at Playwrights New Horizons.  It continues to be the best theater in town for my taste.  I’d say don’t wait around, run go see this play.

 

The play is a slow build, carefully constructing a tight, small world, that begins to resonate wider and wider.  By the end, I was moved to tears.  You know I see a lot of theater.  I can’t remember the last time I cried at a show.  When it was over, the audience sat in complete, absolute, almost terrified silence.  Again rare for me, I wanted to see it all over again from the beginning.

Now, this isn’t an easy play, nor an uplifting one.  It’s got references to the whale and Jonah and the whale and Ahab.  It has characters that may make you uncomfortable.  It is defined by acts of love, well, Acts of Love, that are neither expected, nor simply understood.

If you are up for a challenge, I think you’ll be glad you saw it, and I want to talk with you about it afterwards.

The Met Museum once again comes through with a whale of a good time.  This time with its “Faking It: Manipulated Photography Before Photoshop” exhibit.

Faking It: Manipulated Photography Before Photoshop

Now the smaller exhibit of photos manipulated by Photoshop is also interesting, but go see the warhorses by Gustave LeGray, Henry Peach Robinson, and Edward Steichen.  In person, you can really see the manipulation, which is missing from a PowerPoint slide.  I finally get why Fading Away was so challenging.

Henry Peach Robinson, Fading Away, 1858

Of course, there are the Surrealist and Postmodernist greatest hits, too.  Weegee gets his day in the Met sun (nice to see him other places besides the International Center for Photography). 

I was “turned on” by Grete Stern’s Dream #1: Electrical Appliances for the Home from 1948.  The whole dream series was new to me.

 

 

 

 

I do have a personal connection with the “Novelties and Amusements” theme of the show.  I was visited by a spirit when I had my photograph made in Gettysburg, PA.  Of course, it was no novelty, no mere amusement.  Well, she was my Muse for writing a paper, so I guess, in a way, it was a-muse-ment.