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| Me and my brothers, after the Billy Elliot show!! |
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| Me in Billy Elliot The Musical!! |
Billy Elliot and Long Days
Journey into night Journals
In my stay in London, I used my time to watch all the fabulous musicals and plays I could, as part of my individual research and learning, including hits such as Billy Elliot and the play of “Long days Journey into night” by Eugene O’Neill.
I had watched the movie of Billy Eliot before, but I was mostly impressed by how enjoyable the musical was, with all the dancing and singing, the lights, the props, such as his bedroom which went up and down the stage, the colorful costumes and the changes in scenery, specially the quick ones, from the ballet studio to the dark mines, all this accompanied with music. This made me want to research on the history of the musicals!
What I loved about the musical was the clever fusion on both worlds, the dancing (with all the ballerina girls, the happy and energetic dances, the youth of the dancers with pink tights; the creation of the world that Billy loved and lived for AND the aggressive, tough world of the men in the village, including Billy’s dad, which showed the reality of the situation they lived in, the hard life the men where destined to live and the stereotypical men’s job at the time. This combination was what gave great strength to the show, as it these two opposite and contrasting themes, dreams and aspirations was what Billy had to go through every day in his life and it helped the audience understand better his situation. I specially enjoyed it when the girls and the men danced beside each other, the men lifting the girls of the girls dancing in partners with them, as it really emphasized my point above, and for me, my interpretation of this was that although both worlds are very different and impossible to work at the same time, there is always a way to make things work, and this was a dramatic way to show this, through dance and music and drama.
Although it was very complicated to take pictures, as it was prohibited, I wish I had some photos of the setting of some of my favorite moments, such as when the two boys were trying on girl outfits, and gigantic, brightly colored mannequins appeared onstage and dance with them. The use of props here was outstanding and unexpected, and I believe they symbolize the greatness of a dream that is still two big for them, and how they wish to grow up to be able to wear them.
Another of my favorite moments was in the dance between Billy and the older him, which was an illusion of him when he was a grown up dancer. The artistic interpretation of this in the musical was different to the movie, as there the dance was at the end, and it was Billy alone, while in the musical they made beautiful ballet duet. The allusion was created by the dark blue lighting and the smoke machine, which made it seem, at least to me, that they were dancing in the clouds which helped create the allusion of the fantasy he was living. Their choreography was exact, and the timing of their movements worked beautifully in unison, explaining that Billy had already gained the confidence and talent needed to be an excelling dancer. Because it was only them onstage, and there was no public as in the movie’s version, the dance was much more intimate and magical. I remember that they finished of when Billy was lifted by a string from the ground, and could fly around the stage, with the help of the “older him”, who would push him around and swing him epitomizing freedom. It made me think of the musical I watched in January in Manila, of Peter Pan, in which they used the same instrument for a similar dramatic effect when the children (Wendy, John and Peter) flew to the second star with Tinkerbelle and Peter Pan. I thought it was a great choice to use it as it meant that Billy had over passed his barriers and his goals, and was now aspiring higher. It was a very emotional moment, followed by then there was a ‘split scene’ and we find out that his dad had been watching him. This is when we all open up, our intimate scene, to another character, and we as the audience know that he is ready.
Long days journey into night was a very different experience from the musical of Billy Elliot, as the genres of drama where completely diverse. I had read the play and admire it for its heroic honesty and strength, to which I relate as it talks about the problems that a family goes through. In my research I found out that it is an autobiographical play, and that he said he wrote “in tears and blood”. Author of other plays such as “Days without End” and “Beyond the Horizon”, this play was awarded a Nobel Prize for Literature, and it gains emotional strength as it springs from his personal tragedies, compounded by his own emerging illnesses.
The play followed the guidelines of a realistic drama. The theatrical movement of Realism originated in the 19th centaury, with the aim was to bringing out a greater sense of fidelity of real life from literary texts, plays and performances, concentrating on the ills of society at the time, familial conflicts and the nature of relationships.
The stage was made very homey as all the furniture was wooden and it was fully equipped with the furniture of a home (table, library, chairs, armchair, rigs, lamps, cushions), and the lighting was a soft yellowish- orange organized by the lighting designer Mark Henderson (similar to what I used in the Kabuki show to symbolize that they were inside the “Aburaya”), represented the sunlight glows on the naturalistic, solid, wooden set. Given the literal and metaphorical darkness to come, the sheer heat of the image seems to herald a dramatic range sometimes denied by productions too easily addicted to O'Neill's pain-filled.
I mainly focused on the character of Mary Tyrone for this project, as the actress, Laurie Metcalf, is very inspiring and I have always been a fan of her work. Analyzing her acting and her character, she was a very passionate woman, full of inspirations and dreams, faith, but that had been covered by the pain that the present brought to her life. For this, she became a morphine addict, and obsessive about her appearance. She managed to keep the audience intrigued y the representation of the split personality her character went trough, when she changed from being a lovable mother with her soft looks and actions towards her husband and sons, to change to an neurotic woman, confronted by childhood memories and pain, shaking and always looking and acting frenetically like a distracted ghost, escaping her pain with the use of drugs. Her performance indicated clearly the rooted solitude of her as acts and her being and the delusional nature of the addiction.
Other characters, such as the anguished, tight-fisted father, David Suchet gives a performance of high-definition intensity, suddenly seeming physically diminished as expansive hope gives way to a bitter despair. His eyes glow with love at one moment for Mary and his family, and spark with fury the next. And the passage in which he describes his dirt-poor childhood, which in part, at least, explains the meanness with money that possibly caused his wife's addiction, and certainly explains his sell-out career, is overpoweringly moving.
It is a family racked
by addiction, despair and festering guilt, but in the opening act O'Neill
offers a heart- wrenching glimpse at hope. After years addicted to morphine,
first prescribed to her when she gave birth to Edmund - O'Neill's portrait of
himself as a young man - the mother, Mary, appears to have undergone a
successful cure. Her actor husband James is palpably proud of her, and the two
sons are less juiced up than usual. The production brilliantly captures the
tension of characters walking on eggshells around each other, fearful that this
brief moment of happiness will be short lived.In my stay in London, I used my time to watch all the fabulous musicals and plays I could, as part of my individual research and learning, including hits such as Billy Elliot and the play of “Long days Journey into night” by Eugene O’Neill.
I had watched the movie of Billy Eliot before, but I was mostly impressed by how enjoyable the musical was, with all the dancing and singing, the lights, the props, such as his bedroom which went up and down the stage, the colorful costumes and the changes in scenery, specially the quick ones, from the ballet studio to the dark mines, all this accompanied with music. This made me want to research on the history of the musicals!
What I loved about the musical was the clever fusion on both worlds, the dancing (with all the ballerina girls, the happy and energetic dances, the youth of the dancers with pink tights; the creation of the world that Billy loved and lived for AND the aggressive, tough world of the men in the village, including Billy’s dad, which showed the reality of the situation they lived in, the hard life the men where destined to live and the stereotypical men’s job at the time. This combination was what gave great strength to the show, as it these two opposite and contrasting themes, dreams and aspirations was what Billy had to go through every day in his life and it helped the audience understand better his situation. I specially enjoyed it when the girls and the men danced beside each other, the men lifting the girls of the girls dancing in partners with them, as it really emphasized my point above, and for me, my interpretation of this was that although both worlds are very different and impossible to work at the same time, there is always a way to make things work, and this was a dramatic way to show this, through dance and music and drama.
Although it was very complicated to take pictures, as it was prohibited, I wish I had some photos of the setting of some of my favorite moments, such as when the two boys were trying on girl outfits, and gigantic, brightly colored mannequins appeared onstage and dance with them. The use of props here was outstanding and unexpected, and I believe they symbolize the greatness of a dream that is still two big for them, and how they wish to grow up to be able to wear them.
Another of my favorite moments was in the dance between Billy and the older him, which was an illusion of him when he was a grown up dancer. The artistic interpretation of this in the musical was different to the movie, as there the dance was at the end, and it was Billy alone, while in the musical they made beautiful ballet duet. The allusion was created by the dark blue lighting and the smoke machine, which made it seem, at least to me, that they were dancing in the clouds which helped create the allusion of the fantasy he was living. Their choreography was exact, and the timing of their movements worked beautifully in unison, explaining that Billy had already gained the confidence and talent needed to be an excelling dancer. Because it was only them onstage, and there was no public as in the movie’s version, the dance was much more intimate and magical. I remember that they finished of when Billy was lifted by a string from the ground, and could fly around the stage, with the help of the “older him”, who would push him around and swing him epitomizing freedom. It made me think of the musical I watched in January in Manila, of Peter Pan, in which they used the same instrument for a similar dramatic effect when the children (Wendy, John and Peter) flew to the second star with Tinkerbelle and Peter Pan. I thought it was a great choice to use it as it meant that Billy had over passed his barriers and his goals, and was now aspiring higher. It was a very emotional moment, followed by then there was a ‘split scene’ and we find out that his dad had been watching him. This is when we all open up, our intimate scene, to another character, and we as the audience know that he is ready.
Long days journey into night was a very different experience from the musical of Billy Elliot, as the genres of drama where completely diverse. I had read the play and admire it for its heroic honesty and strength, to which I relate as it talks about the problems that a family goes through. In my research I found out that it is an autobiographical play, and that he said he wrote “in tears and blood”. Author of other plays such as “Days without End” and “Beyond the Horizon”, this play was awarded a Nobel Prize for Literature, and it gains emotional strength as it springs from his personal tragedies, compounded by his own emerging illnesses.
The play followed the guidelines of a realistic drama. The theatrical movement of Realism originated in the 19th centaury, with the aim was to bringing out a greater sense of fidelity of real life from literary texts, plays and performances, concentrating on the ills of society at the time, familial conflicts and the nature of relationships.
The stage was made very homey as all the furniture was wooden and it was fully equipped with the furniture of a home (table, library, chairs, armchair, rigs, lamps, cushions), and the lighting was a soft yellowish- orange organized by the lighting designer Mark Henderson (similar to what I used in the Kabuki show to symbolize that they were inside the “Aburaya”), represented the sunlight glows on the naturalistic, solid, wooden set. Given the literal and metaphorical darkness to come, the sheer heat of the image seems to herald a dramatic range sometimes denied by productions too easily addicted to O'Neill's pain-filled.
I mainly focused on the character of Mary Tyrone for this project, as the actress, Laurie Metcalf, is very inspiring and I have always been a fan of her work. Analyzing her acting and her character, she was a very passionate woman, full of inspirations and dreams, faith, but that had been covered by the pain that the present brought to her life. For this, she became a morphine addict, and obsessive about her appearance. She managed to keep the audience intrigued y the representation of the split personality her character went trough, when she changed from being a lovable mother with her soft looks and actions towards her husband and sons, to change to an neurotic woman, confronted by childhood memories and pain, shaking and always looking and acting frenetically like a distracted ghost, escaping her pain with the use of drugs. Her performance indicated clearly the rooted solitude of her as acts and her being and the delusional nature of the addiction.
Other characters, such as the anguished, tight-fisted father, David Suchet gives a performance of high-definition intensity, suddenly seeming physically diminished as expansive hope gives way to a bitter despair. His eyes glow with love at one moment for Mary and his family, and spark with fury the next. And the passage in which he describes his dirt-poor childhood, which in part, at least, explains the meanness with money that possibly caused his wife's addiction, and certainly explains his sell-out career, is overpoweringly moving.
The play, a single day in the life of the Tyrone family in their summer home in 1912 I thought it was quite a brilliant masterpiece, that made me laugh more than with the book as the comedic elements were beautifully acted out, specially the irony of the characters that laughed at their depressing situation. It also made me cry however, as although the scenes were sometime static and there was no change in setting, the emotional tension between the characters and their incapability of helping themselves and each other and fixing something that is so broken shows their characters human souls in their purest form, and it is extraordinarily moving.
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