Happy New Year from Goodman Theatre!With the beginning of 2010, we are inspired to reflect on the last 12 months and welcome growth and change in the new year. Fittingly, the next production on the Goodman stage—a double bill of Hughie and Krapp’s Last Tape starring Brian Dennehy—deals with the theme of self-reflection.
In O’Neill’s Hughie, the high-rolling gambler Erie struggles to redefine his identity after his confidante passes away. In Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape, the title character Krapp has a birthday tradition. Every year, he records the important—and the banal—moments of the last year. As he prepares to record a new tape on his 69th birthday, he begins to listen to his archives and reflect on his life.
Robert Falls, Goodman Artistic Director and director of Hughie shares his thoughts about the power of reflection and wants YOU to join the conversation:
Although Hughie and Krapp’s Last Tape are stylistically very different, they share a great many themes and characteristics—not the least of which is the nature of personal reflection. In each play, the central character spends a great deal of time and energy recalling the past, either through the stories that Erie Smith relates in Hughie or through Krapp’s examination of audio tapes from his past. In each case, these ruminations simultaneously celebrate the glories of the past and mourn their loss, making the act of reflection both comforting and painful. This is, I think, the nature of reflection and the source of its power: by revisiting the past, we not only experience again the joys and sorrows that we find there, but use those memories to measure how far we have come—however joyful or difficult that journey might have been.
—Robert Falls, Goodman Theatre Artistic Director
We want to know: How do you revisit the past, and by which moments do you measure how far you have come? Post a comment below to share your story.
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There is no one way that I revisit the past -- sometimes it is through a food I had as a child, seeing an old Cream of Wheat ad in an antique store with the Af-American chef on the box brings back the kitchen of my childhood as mom prepared the typical Midwest winter before school breakfast...other times it is music -- "Blue Moon" was a song that my first high school romance and I shared and recalls first love; in plays or in film, sometimes it's that subtle nuance that is counter to the film in my personal memory, in books ala Proust, it is time remembered. Sometimes in occasional dreams I recall I can separate the story into metaphors and learn from them.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year to Mr. Falls and all the crew of Goodman Theatre! Thanks for a very special 2009!
ReplyDeleteJoão Bourbonnais. Triptal/Sea Plays
I revisit the past many watys - through personal memories, memories related by friends and relatives, genealogical research, literature and historical documentary. Each time I return to something in the past, whether on purpose or by chance, it makes me know and understand my present a little bit better, a little bit deeper, and a little more richly. I measure how far I've come by how squarely in the face I can look both back and forward as a result.
ReplyDeleteI revisit the past through journals I kept when I was growing up. I was especially prolific at the age of 13, and I cringe now when reading my teen angst. Although it's humiliating, I'm so glad I have those journals. I haven't found any other way to immerse myself so immediately in my past--for better or worse!
ReplyDelete-Julie
I was in the audience this past Sunday, February
ReplyDelete7, 2010. This was the second time that I witnessed "Hughie"..I enjoyed it very much forthe second time.
I am very curious about the direction of "Krapp's Last Tape..in the early moments on stage Krapp reminates with the bannana..puts the key in the drawer, puts the banana in his mouth and then proceeds to do the same motions and getures again. However, in this production Brain Dennehy in the role becons to the audience as if he would give an audience member a bite or the whole bannana. I was so surprised. This antic seemed to me, to break the fourth wall.
Did anyone else notice this and what are your perceptions and feelings about this character sharing his bannana. Would Beckett have written that in the playwrights direction. I am so curious.
Lorelei J. Goldman, email: loreleigoldman@sbcglobal.net
The O'Neill Festival, The Long Red Road and 10 by August Wilson!
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