Wed Feb 25 - Table (for) Three

How well do we know the people we love?

It's hard to spend an hour on Scene 12 and not have that sticky question bounce around inside your skull. In a pessimistic mood, the question extends to include everyone we encounter. We only know what we are told and what we see. While the observant among us can sherlock our way through deductions to make educated guesses, the fact is we really do not know the heart of anyone, not even ourselves. Especially ourselves? Or is that too simple, too pat an answer, to satisfy the messy monster that lives in the heart of this play?

Think I'm being unnecessarily poetic? I think I am understating the point. Working on the Restaurant scene tonight we came across the line " Be bigger than jealous". But the character can't, he's unable to see past the physical betrayal of his partner. She seems unwilling to take the lumps and guilt for her actions as her motivation was not personal, and she did not seek the experience. Is monogamy a form of control? Is that a bad thing? The monster at the centre of the play is part jealousy, part vengeance, part martyr and part master. This hybrid beast lurks in every scene, waiting to taste blood.

I am both over the moon with the quality of work the cast is bringing and getting annoyed at the clock tick tick tocking away. We were able to get through the restaurant and the park scenes, barely. In hindsight is is hard to end the evening with the park, is is a brutal ending. When it comes at the end of a run it has a warmer ring, since it wraps up so many key elements of the story. Standing alone, it provokes sorrow and difficult questions without the payoff of structural closure.

Not much by way of lighter moments in these two scenes - but we did find a few. Also promising ways to make the betrayal(s) more personal and immediate. I don't want to get into specifics here, but the stakes went up considerably in the restaurant scene and I think the results will crackle onstage.

My head is getting muddled from the late evening, and the nagging questions. Going to sleep to think about the elements of identity that assure us we exist. No biggie there...

(note on picture: I tried to unwind by doing a Facebook meme involving randomly generated words and images. While the result was fun, it feels oddly like the universe wants to keep those questions at the front of my brain)