How can we as theatre artists effectively display the horrors of war without setting the scene on an active battlefield or going to a gruesome conventional asthetic (whatever that means to you)?
I feel fortunate enough to have been able to see something I've never seen before. I'm not talking about the show itself but the entrance into the theatre and the first three to five minutes of performance.
Outside of terrible Halloween haunted houses I've never felt that purposely lost and disoriented. Even trying to find my seat was a challenge because of all the haze in the air. It's was scary. I loved it. The sense of being completely alone while in a crowded room is something I won't soon forget. The anticipation was killer. The fog was so thick and took SO long to dissipate. Occasionally I thought I caught a glimpse of an actor moving on stage. Was it? Was it my imagination? Was it my salacious appetite to see what it was that would discovered? (I really wish I hadn't seen the horse half during the theatre tour - how shocking and incredible would that have been?!)
The dirty, bloody, ugly -- the grotesque actions, the dim lighting, the ominous sound effects... Wow.
This is what I wanted. What a simple convention! I've been consistently shocked at how SIMPLE a lot of the conventions we've seen actually are! Why can't we do something similar back home? I really think we could! Why couldn't we push the envelope?!
I wanted more of that out of Wallenstien. I was HUNGRY for it. It was over too soon. The following three hours I kept hoping to revert back to the first imagery.
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