So just finished three weeks of holidays. The time flew! I actually stayed in Paris the whole time, but found plenty of things to do...
Made hot cross buns for Good Friday and ate plenty of chocolate on Sunday.
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Saw Gross und Klein (Big and Small) at Théâtre de la Ville - a Sydney Theatre Company production starring Cate Blanchette.
Blanchette was absolutely stunning. A fantastic performance. Actually the whole cast were brilliant. I didn't quite understand the play (or at all - but this isn't unusual for me...) but it was inventive and had lots of beautiful images.
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Went to The Suit at Théâtre des Bouffes des Nord directed by Peter Brook, Marie Hélène Estienne, and Franck Krawczyk. A play based on a short story by South African Author Can Themba.
Really simple and clear direction - nothing other than the necessary. And beautiful, simple, and very charming actors. It was very good. It wasn't really to my taste - I wanted something a bit more complex I think - maybe something a bit flashy - a bit of 'a show' - but it was very good.
Highlight: Ling being brought on stage to go to the 'party' in the play. Hilarious!
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Also so Mass für Mass (Measure for Measure) directed by Thomas Ostermeier at Théâtre de l'Odéon. The same director from the german Othello I saw last year in Sceaux. He's a big deal right now in the theatre scene apparently. His productions are really bold - and this one was too. Really enjoyed it! Great actors, fantastic set (just a box, but with dirty walls which the actors sprayed clean). Amanda was sitting front row, center, and had several actors come and sit next to her during the show. Pretty exciting!!
We paid 13€ each to see this show, and we got front row tickets. Amazing. If this came to New Zealand, it would only come for an international festival, and you'd pay ten times more for the seats we got!
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Finally saw Le Malade Imaginaire by Molière at Comedie Française
Unfortunately really really boring. I suspect my lack of French didn't help - but the audience weren't laughing too much either. This is the only state funded company in France that has a full time ensemble. Some actors were really great, but this particular production was pretty dead.
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Watched a great documentary called Catfish. Great inspiration for a Facebook inspired play I'm writing.
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Watched the American's take on The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. It was actually quite good. It was a bit sexier, which I thought the swedish version lacked a bit.
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Dragged Amanda to Sur la piste du Marsupilami which has been pumped with advertising all over Paris.
Based on the comic book character above, which is very famous in France I think. It was heaps of fun. Big characters. Big performances. Ridiculous. Totally my kind of thing.
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Finished Ken Robinson's The Element. A good book, but as I already feel like I've found my element, I was a bit like "yep". But his call to action for a drastic change in the education system (especially in the west) is inspiring, scary, and vitally important.
I've started reading We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver, which is really getting me down. It's so negative! Evil children...Depressed mothers... But I'm enjoying it at the same time.
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For the last week and half of the holidays I worked on a new website for Dad. I discovered a great website called Cargo Collective which is great for creating really nice designer-y-non-wordpress looking websites. I'm really happy with what I've done, even though it's fairly simple. But I've taught myself a bit of html/CSS coding (which I thought was impossible but is actually fairly simple) and done something really great for my Dad.
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And now ten weeks of Bouffon! I'm looking forward to a new dynamic in the class (with more people and some new and old faces), and I'm curious to discover what this mysterious Bouffon is really like...
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