Torpedoing the Ark

I've never seen an Ibsen play until tonight - never read one (all the way through. I started Ghosts but didn't get past the first page). My first taste was appropriately one of his first works: Peer Gynt.

I didn't know what to make of it. On the one hand, I was seeing at a Theatre in Exeter that is, from my understanding, not the top-notch one. On the other hand, they were doing Peer Gynt, so props for effort. And it was in traverse, so the director probably knew what they were doing. Choreography and songs stood out as places that needed work - because we were so deathly close to the actors, it was obvious to tell when they were offbeat. And often the dances were simplistic, sometimes that was the point though. When the peasants were dancing, they did folk dances, like the ones I did the first night or two at Exeter. But on the whole, the dancing was pretty good, but not amazing.

And I didn't know what to make of Mr. Ibsen's fairy tale. Ibsen, the man who hated humanity and wanted to blow it out of the water for the sake of the world. On the other hand, the last half hour or so (which, relative to the show as a whole, wasn't that long) was really great, from a writing standpoint, a fairy tale standpoint, and a "love and understanding" standpoint. Or at least it seemed to be. Maybe I'm missing the thematic point and I've been duped into thinking it's about love and understanding, because when it comes to feeling good about yourself, I don't think of Ibsen plays.

I want to talk about Peer Gynt with Royal Rhodes, that's what I think ultimately will come of this will come to. It's been compared to Everyman, and so I guess that's where I'm putting it too.

The best part was that they did it in West Country accents. And at some point someone had an American accent, or tried. I was like, "oh you poor thing."

But, beyond that, I also got to do my horseback riding lesson today, which was just me, and I actually got the trotting-sitting thing down thing that you're supposed to do. That was fun. And I did my laundry. And had a BLT here that actually was just B, L, and T. In all other BLTs I've found chicken salad or something else besides the original B, L, and T. It's almost as though the British are afraid to acknowledge that three seeming side-dishes could meld together to form one sandwich.

I was on the radio, I don't know if I mentioned. Some radio people came around Thanksgiving to interview how I and some other K'Nexers were taking being American in England during Thanksgiving. One of the people from the stables recognized my voice. It was fun.