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Anarchists, Dragons and Unconsoled
Apr. 2nd, 2023 02:10 pmLast week, we went to see the Accidental Death of an Anarchist at the Lyric Hammersmith. I discovered at dinner beforehand that it was meant to be a comedy and that made me a bit apprehensive because comedy isn't really my thing. And it turned out that this play was not really my thing. I thought it was very cleverly put together, especially the set change between floors of the building early on. But it definitely wasn't my kind of humour. I did appreciate the political message of police brutality and the way that isn't really investigated. And I could see why most of the audience were laughing a lot, even if it didn't really appeal to me. But I did disagree with the performance choices which led all of the actors to basically shout all of the time. I get that they were trying to project to the back of the theatre when they didn't have microphones. But there are ways to project without just yelling and it did make it seem like the performances were a bit more one-note than they might have been otherwise.
A couple of nights ago, we went to see Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, which I had been really looking forward to. The trailer made me laugh a lot every single time I saw it and I was hopeful that the humour would be borne out in the rest of the movie. It kind of wasn't, which was a bit disappointing, even though I did really enjoy the film overall. The first 15 minutes in particular were really clunky because they were a flashback with very heavy-handed voice-over. It did pick up a lot after that and was a lot of fun for the most part. It also made me cry by the end, so it had more of an emotional heart than I had expected, which was good.
I also failed to finish a book this week: The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro. I haven't read any of his before so I didn't really know what to expect and I think this one is actually quite different to a lot of his others. It did appeal to me to a certain extent in its kind of surrealist, incredibly vague, wishy-washy narrative. It's the story of Mr Ryder turning up in an unnamed European town to give a piano recital. But as the book progresses, it becomes obvious there's an awful lot more and also perhaps an awful lot less going on, since all of the people seem to know him but also not know him; he has a potentially pre-existing relationship with one of the townsfolk; he doesn't seem to remember things and then he does seem to remember things; he knows things that he shouldn't and also doesn't know things that he should. It's all very weird, which isn't necessarily a bad thing in my book, or even in this book. And if I'd been in a different frame of mind, I might have carried on with it and enjoyed it through to the end. However, the multi-page speeches that said everything and nothing from all of the different townsfolk, and Ryder’s inability to ask or have answered any kind of a straight question got very wearing and I have to admit I gave up, partly because it was just too long. I think this was a failing on my part rather than the book’s, but I can see why most of the reviews are either five-star from people saying it's a masterpiece or one-star from people saying it's unreadable.
A couple of nights ago, we went to see Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, which I had been really looking forward to. The trailer made me laugh a lot every single time I saw it and I was hopeful that the humour would be borne out in the rest of the movie. It kind of wasn't, which was a bit disappointing, even though I did really enjoy the film overall. The first 15 minutes in particular were really clunky because they were a flashback with very heavy-handed voice-over. It did pick up a lot after that and was a lot of fun for the most part. It also made me cry by the end, so it had more of an emotional heart than I had expected, which was good.
I also failed to finish a book this week: The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro. I haven't read any of his before so I didn't really know what to expect and I think this one is actually quite different to a lot of his others. It did appeal to me to a certain extent in its kind of surrealist, incredibly vague, wishy-washy narrative. It's the story of Mr Ryder turning up in an unnamed European town to give a piano recital. But as the book progresses, it becomes obvious there's an awful lot more and also perhaps an awful lot less going on, since all of the people seem to know him but also not know him; he has a potentially pre-existing relationship with one of the townsfolk; he doesn't seem to remember things and then he does seem to remember things; he knows things that he shouldn't and also doesn't know things that he should. It's all very weird, which isn't necessarily a bad thing in my book, or even in this book. And if I'd been in a different frame of mind, I might have carried on with it and enjoyed it through to the end. However, the multi-page speeches that said everything and nothing from all of the different townsfolk, and Ryder’s inability to ask or have answered any kind of a straight question got very wearing and I have to admit I gave up, partly because it was just too long. I think this was a failing on my part rather than the book’s, but I can see why most of the reviews are either five-star from people saying it's a masterpiece or one-star from people saying it's unreadable.
