My Gracious Host listed a Top Six theatrical performances, which got me thinking. Sadly, I couldn’t come up with a Top Five, so here is a Top Four.
- Copenhagen, by Michael Frayn, with David Burke, Matthew Marsh and Sara Kestelman. Directed by Michael Blakemore, in 1999, I think, the West End transfer. Just knocked me out. A great play, a great cast, all kinds of good.
- Richard III, starring Ian McKellen, at the Curren Theater in SF, 1992. Directed by Richard Eyre. There’s an interesting sort of interview/presentation by the Knight Out on R3 on Stagework, which led to a lot of pleasurable time-wasting on my part.
- Largo Desolato, by Vaclav Havel, trans. by Tom Stoppard, Yale Rep. 1990. Jan Triska in the lead part, directed by Gitta Honegger. It is still the only Vaclav Havel play I’ve seen performed, and when I saw it, I hadn’t read any of his stuff, either. Looking back, the reviews were pretty negative, and I suspect the production left much to be desired, but it was wonderful to me, and confirmed my love for a certain kind of absurdist theater.
- La Cage aux Folles, with Peter Marshall and Keene Curtis, probably in 1986, a touring company of the production directed by Arthur Laurents. Lovely, probably tremendously formative. I had already more-or-less memorized the songs, if I remember correctly; it was one of my first experiences of seeing a show I was already fond of.
I could have filled in a fifth with any one of a dozen or so shows—Picasso at the Lapine Agile or Shlemiel the First at the American Repertory Theater, the national touring company of Angels in America: Millenium Approaches, Mrs. Warren’s Profession at the Huntington Theater Company, a Comedy of Errors at the Globe in London—but none of them stand out from the others at the moment, so picking would really be arbitrary. Besides, I’m sure that there was something wonderful that I’ve forgotten and I’ll think of tomorrow. Or, perhaps, it’s best to leave the last slot open for the next wonderful play I’ll see.
Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.