Thursday, April 21, 2011

Armin Wiebe's The Moonlight Sonata of Beethoven Blatz

I love watching theatre plays and so I was excited when I found out that I'd be watching one for school. Last weekend I headed over to the Rachel Browne Theatre on Bannatyne Street to watch Armin Wiebe's The Moonlight Sonata of Beethoven Blatz.

When I first heard of it I didn't really know what to expect of the play. I was torn between thinking if it would be a boring classical play about Beethoven, or if it was going to be a play about Beethoven with a twist of humour. Thankfully, it was humourous and wasn't actually about Beethoven himself.

When I first entered the theatre, I found myself looking for a seat amidst the sea of a white haired audience. I found myself a good seat right in the top centre of the audience. And that was when I got a good look of the set. The set was really simple and even looked cartoonish to me, which I liked. I liked how they attached curtains inside the house to make walls if they needed to.

They play was set in the Prairies during the 1930s. They had very different accents which I had a hard time understanding at first, but eventually got used to it by the first ten minutes or so. That was also the first time that I heard of any accent native to the Prairies. But according to the little pamphlet that I got from the play, the accent is supposed to have come from Mennonites.

I really liked the play because it was different from plays that I usually watch. This one was particularly interesting because I am still getting to know the Prairies, and through the play I think that I learned some things about it. Like possibly how the people back then used to dress, and of course, how they used to talk.

During Wiebe's visit to Red River College on April 14, he was asked about the accents of the characters and whether or not he planned them. He became a bit defensive saying something along the lines: that of course he meant for the characters' accents to be like that because he wrote the play and everything he put there was meant to be there. Well, I liked the characters having those accents, even though I had trouble understanding them at first.

I also read some of Wiebe's literature that was related to the play. And I think that gave me a better understanding of the play because it gave me background information on some of the aspects of the play such as the piano.


One thing that I still find weird though, more than the peek at lesbianism in the play, was that the Russian pianist stayed and lived with the couple while he fixed the piano, which took months. But I liked having him there anyway, because I liked that he could play the piano for Susch.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Almost!

It's almost the last week of school and I came across this funny poem on the internet. Read it with feelings. =)




To My Alarm Clock - Anonymous

Every morning I lie there innocently sleeping

When the peace is ruptured by a horrible beeping.
My serenity ripped asunder, sudden and drastic
By this evil, demonic, red-eyed piece of plastic.

I roll over in pain and pound on the snooze,
Groaning, moaning, thinking 'What's there to lose?'
'Don't make me get up, just nine minutes more.'
The same thing I've said every morning before.

It's not that I hate mornings or dread the new day.
It's just that I loathe waking up in this way.
I'd much rather simply rise up with the light,
Glowing in the window, chasing away the night.

But the sudden screaming, the incessant fuss,
Makes me want to yell and cry and simply to cuss.
Especially the knowledge that all of my sorrow
Will be repeated the same time, same way, tomorrow.




I feel like this every Thursday and Friday 'cause my classes start at 8am. But yay last week of classes, coming up!


But I'm probably going to still try to wake up early during the break. There's much more that I can do with that time instead of sleeping in...like watching TV. :)

Friday, April 01, 2011