Yikes

I can smell the daddy issues

And it was astonishing because not only was it an amazing sense of connection between the audience and the actress, but you also realized that this was a kind of an historical lesson in theater reception. That’s what must have happened at The Globe. These soliloquies were not simply monologues that people spoke, they were call and response to the audience. And you realized that vibrancy, that that sense of connectedness is not only what makes theater great in prisons, it’s what makes theater great, period."

Hamlet. There’s a scene where Hamlet sees Claudius praying and debates whether to kill him now or wait (because if Claudius dies praying he will automatically go to heaven). The actor playing Hamlet was genuinely asking the audience the questions in the speech, and when he got to “and should I kill him now?” someone in the audience shouted “YES KILL HIM HE NEEDS TO DIE!” Hamlet took the entire rest of the monologue to that person, enumerating his reservations so persuasively that they started to nod in agreement.

Romeo and Juliet. In this production, the fight between Mercutio and Tybalt happens in several rounds, of which Mercutio won the first. Mercutio’s actor made the choice, upon his victory, to run down the audience with his hand out for high-fives. He decided this in rehearsal, so he had time to plan for the three responses people would probably give him: a) a high-five back; b) being stunned and not reacting; and c) the old “oops too slow.” What this Mercutio did not prepare for was the audience member who panicked and deposited their handful of M&Ms into his open palm. The way I heard it, Mercutio was still processing this when Benvolio came up beside him and stole the M&Ms out of his hand to eat them.

I forget what year it was, but the play took place in the historic James J Hill House here in St Paul. Hill was a railway tycoon during the gilded age, with all the disparity of wealth and privilege that implies. He was so successful and obscenely wealthy he became known as The Empire Builder and the grandness of his home reflected that. The walls in the dining room are literally gold. It’s breathtaking. It’s obscene. It’s perfect for the kind of corruption and rot that takes place in Hamlet under a gilded veneer.

The play started in the viewing gallery, with actors walking through the literal gilded halls of the mansion, the leather wallpaper stamped with gold filigree glittering in the gaslamp—the perfect setting for the wedding scene. As the opening progressed the lights were dimmed until only Hamlet was visible illuminated from the upper gallery by harsh modern lights above, just this chillingly beautiful cold light after all the warmth of the gaslamp and gold.

As the play progressed we were led further through the house, witnessing Hamlet talk to the ghost of his father on the grand staircase—the stairs further used to show hierarchy among the characters with Hamlet spiraling ever lower until we were invited to descend into the bowels of the house through the servants quarters, an area just as vast as the rest of the house but infinitely colder and utterly devoid of the opulent grandeur above.

The space is also nearly entirely marble, which leeches the warmth from the air, so even huddled together the audience grew colder and colder the longer we were down there.

It also meant the echo was amazing, and listening to Ophelia sing forlornly as she descends into madness was absolutely bone chilling. Watching her climb into a claw foot tub that had been placed in the center of the long hallway was also hair raising. She just kept singing, strewing flowers around the empty floor as we stood around her in a circle, helpless to stop her as she purposefully slipped under the water, holding her hands above the lip of the tub even as her head slipped under the water and the last echoes of her singing faded.

It made the Queen’s account of how Ophelia died just so… the lie of it. Like we were still standing there, she was still in the tub (head now above the water) and we’d witnessed the truth of it, and there was Gertrude telling any one of us in the circle who would listen how the poor maid “fell.” Anything to absolve themselves of the sin of her suicide.

We were turned around for a bit after that, led to the end of the hallway near the boiler room where the gravediggers leaned on gilded age coal shovels, and Hamlet got to do his bit with Yorick, the echo of the marble hallway dampened by having brought us back toward the stairwell, his voice soft and intimate. Showing his quiet resolve and return to sanity.

Only to pull us back moments later to center as he ran to where Ophelia’s funeral was taking place, and when I tell you, Hamlet’s howl of grief echoed. It reverberated. It was terrifying. It was amazing. People took instinctive steps away from him. It was just raw emotion bouncing off the walls of this cold, dark basement, entire worlds away from where we’d started.

The play ended back in the ballroom, the dead lying strewn amongst the wealth that couldn’t save them with only Horatio illuminated in gold by the lights. When Fortinbrass arrived he looked around the space like it was nothing, like the way we’d looked around the empty void of the basement. The wealth meant nothing to him. It was just another graveyard.

- vegetables

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YUTA The 1st Album 【PERSONA】

tatlerasia:

@/bts.bighitofficial returned to the stage after nearly four years. You’ve seen the looks. Here’s the story behind them.

South Korean fashion house @/songzio_official dressed all seven members for their comeback at Gwanghwamun Square (now streaming on @/netflix) in hand-made looks from their collection Lyrical Armor. Each one drawn from a different archetype in Korean history, each piece made entirely by hand in Seoul. Creative director Jay Songzio had two months and a single brief from HYBE: make it personal.

Photos: HYBE, Songzio

via Instagram

The Korean fashion house that dressed BTS as pioneers of history

Founded in Seoul in 1993, Songzio is one of Korea's first avant-garde fashion houses. Every collection begins with a painting on black canvas, the house's signature creative process. The brand has shown at Paris Fashion Week since 2006, and in 2017 Jay Song, founder Zio Song's son, took over as creative director.

Jay Songzio had two months, no references and no mood boards. Just one brief from HYBE: make it personal to each member. The collection, called Lyrical Armor, draws each member's archetype from figures who shaped Korean history: warriors, scholars, statesmen and artists. Everything was made by hand.

Jin The artist. Wide, commanding, and built around an elegance that has always been his, Jin's look is the most regal of the seven.

Suga The architect. Precise, structured and every element considered. A look that reflects exactly how Suga approaches everything he does, with intention.

J-Hope The sorigun, the traditional Korean folk performer. Sculptural and built entirely around a performer whose stage presence is pure kinetic energy.

RM The hero. Layered and considered, RM's look was built to carry the weight of the moment. He sat for parts of the show after an ankle injury. It still landed.

Jimin The poet. Songzio built in traditional Korean frills, but Jimin pushed further - requesting black onyx and metallic details worn like jewellery[sic]. He knew exactly what he wanted.

V The seonbi, the Joseon-era nobleman. The most painterly look of the seven, sitting somewhere between a Paris runway and a 600-year-old palace stage.

Jungkook The vanguard. The darkest and most forward-looking look of the group. If this collection is about where Korea has been, Jungkook's is about where it's going.

Check it out at afroindex.org! 💛✨