![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Theatre: "1001" at the BCA, Boston
Aug. 1st, 2011 09:53 am1001 is a play written by Jason Grote which takes its basic structure from _The Arabian Nights, _, but which also weaves in a modern story abou a couple living in New York City, Alan, the man, being Jewish, and his girlfriend, Dahna, being Arabic. Really, though, this is a story about how we use story to make sense of a seemingly insensible world. At least, that's what I think was the theme,
but Alexx had some other ideas
http://alexx-kay.livejournal.com/308058.html
--it's jus that sort of multi-layerd, complex storytelling. While the ending is downbeat, it is true to the story, and because of that, I didn't find it that depressing; after all, if I am going to make the argumen that story is the way in which I make sense of chaos and tragedy, then the story is always unfolding, always uncertain, until I find out what happens next.
I want to make a special mention regarding the amazing talent of the actors and the impressive artistic creativity of this production. The play contained multiple nesting and forking stories, involving dozens of characters, while using only about six actors. A variety of multi-modal cues were used to indicate a change of scene: there was the narrator characer who announced the scene, preceded by a sound effect tha indicated a scene change, and accompanied by a change in lighting. I had little trouble keeping up with the changes.
Last of all, I have to menion hat one of my favorite scenes was the one in which Jorge Luis Borges appears to chat with Sinbad the Sailor, who is stranded (again). Borges plays his narrative games with Sinbad, who looks agahst and says, "You're freaking me out, Jorge Luis Borges!" (which, in my mind, is a highly quotable line).
but Alexx had some other ideas
http://alexx-kay.livejournal.com/308058.html
--it's jus that sort of multi-layerd, complex storytelling. While the ending is downbeat, it is true to the story, and because of that, I didn't find it that depressing; after all, if I am going to make the argumen that story is the way in which I make sense of chaos and tragedy, then the story is always unfolding, always uncertain, until I find out what happens next.
I want to make a special mention regarding the amazing talent of the actors and the impressive artistic creativity of this production. The play contained multiple nesting and forking stories, involving dozens of characters, while using only about six actors. A variety of multi-modal cues were used to indicate a change of scene: there was the narrator characer who announced the scene, preceded by a sound effect tha indicated a scene change, and accompanied by a change in lighting. I had little trouble keeping up with the changes.
Last of all, I have to menion hat one of my favorite scenes was the one in which Jorge Luis Borges appears to chat with Sinbad the Sailor, who is stranded (again). Borges plays his narrative games with Sinbad, who looks agahst and says, "You're freaking me out, Jorge Luis Borges!" (which, in my mind, is a highly quotable line).
