| Saturday, May 24, 2008 |
| Beovision |
I watched all 3+ hours of the Eurovision Song Contest online on the Eurovision web site, and was terribly disappointed when Sweden's Charlotte Perrelli came in a rather dismal 18th place. I didn't love the song, but it seemed like a good example of Eurodisco -- it certainly wasn't miles away from the musical offerings of Ukraine and Greece, which did much better in the voting. Maybe Sweden should have sent the precocious and talented Amy Diamond instead... oh well, Amy's only 15, so I'm sure she'll make it to the big leagues sooner or later.
The winner of the contest was Russia's Dima Bilan, which I found pretty dull; I would have preferred Ukraine's Ani Lorak, whose song "Shady Lady" contained the all-important "fire/desire" rhyme, or Turkey's Mor ve Ötesi, who reminded me a bit of Queens of the Stone Age. There always seems to be a wacky novelty number in the competition, and this year's oddest song was perhaps Spain's "Baila el Chiki Chiki," which, like the best novelty tunes, manages to be both insanely annoying and frighteningly catchy. I am hoping my pal Steve, who is currently visiting Spain, can give me an on-scene report on whether or not he's spotted any Spaniards dancing "el robocop."
Luckily, Scandinavian pride is alive and well over in Berkeley; Shotgun Players is offering up a musical version of the epic Norse poem "Beowulf," written by and starring Jason Craig of the "tricoastal" (San Francisco, New York and Dublin) theater group Banana Bag & Bodice. I suspect this will be the most controversial work Shotgun has done in quite some time -- I overheard some people complaining about the volume at intermission (earplugs are for sale at the concession stand), and there were a few empty seats in the house for Act 2. Yes, it's a bit loud, and there's a lot of cursing, but it's also wildly inventive, frequently funny, and performed with great brio by an energetic ensemble of actors and musicians. My last encounter with "Beowulf" was way back in high school (I didn't see the recent film starring Angelina Jolie as Grendel's mother), and I'm sure I thought it was a snooze. This production is anything but. I loved the creative and low-budget way they managed to act out the undersea battle between Beowulf and Grendel's mother with 3 fish tanks; a warning to those up front: you might get splashed, despite a long sheet of plastic that is thoughtfully unveiled to cover the audience in the first row. "Beowulf" is for you if you wish modern theater companies would take more risks and think big, even in small spaces. |
posted by 125records @ 10:38 PM  |
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Name: Sue
Home: San Francisco Bay Area, California, United States
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