A book a play and a job
I was due to start work today, but annoyingly this hasn’t transpired. I’m usually quite partial to being idle, but this seems to have changed after 1 year of bumming around in university. I now have to wait for a series of formalities to take place to start work, and this is likely to be quite a while so i need to find something fun to do. I got in touch with my former boss today and asked him if i can sell him my mind for a bit, he hasn’t replied. But then i only mailed him this morning, so my degree of angst is quite apparent. I’ve spent the last few days reading Bill Bryson’s short history of nearly everything, 500+ pages of science for dummies. It’s quite good, he makes geology readable, and geology is usually only any fun when one is stoned. But he does paint a fairly scary picture. From what i’ve read so far we could be whacked by an asteroid, similar to that which put paid to the dinosaurs, at any moment with pretty much no warning. And yellowstone park in the States is apparently one whopping volcano (a caldera to be exact) which usually blows every 600,000 years. The last time anything of a similar scale erupted it left the earth’s human population at about a 1000 ppl. There would have been some serious shagging to get us up to 6 billion, well done chaps! But worryingly yellowstone last went to town 630,000 years ago. We are due. Americans, i knew they’ll be the death of us.
But besides the doom and gloom the book is great fun. I like the way Bryson gives a lot of background about the scientists who came up with all these clever clever theories, and as he says, sometimes the wonder is not the science but the brilliance of discovering it. There’s also lots of juicy gossip about the likes of Newton, who once poked something sharp into the back of his eye just to see what will happen. Curiosity didn’t kill the Newton. Nor his retina. Unfortunately like most things i read i’ve forgotten 90% of the clever things i learnt, and will therefore fail to impress ppl with little snippets in a day or two. Poor form. But for those with a good memory, this book is an excellent way to impress ppl who won’t scratch too far beneath the surface.
In other arty farty news, I watched Checkpoint last night and was quite impressed. The first play was very very well acted. I know little about drama/acting, but i’m quite sure that one man show was very well done, it could easily have been over-acted, but it was done to perfection with lovely timing throughout. The one complaint about the first play was the slightly unrealistic and stereotypical plot. If you haven’t seen it avert your eyes for the rest of the para. The wife going to the chief minister and being held prisoner is a touch far fetched and the whole evil minister thing is a bit old. But happily enough the excellent acting more than makes ammends. The second play was one of the most innovative pieces of theatre i have ever seen. Given the short preparation it was very well done. Again from my amateur perspective, the sound and lighting was cleverly done, the broom stick thing was well dramatized and effective. The auction scene was clever i thought, it showed how numbers of deaths etc. have become just that, numbers and propaganda. I took home a similar message from the doll scene, where the deaths of the kids was wielded by both parties as the sword of propaganda, completely masking the pathetic death of 63 (or 41) kids, no matter whether they were terrorists or first aid trainees. The doll scene was quite distressing, specially how Tracy stabbed the eyes of that doll. Powerful stuff, the death of innocence, well portrayed by the actresses.
The third play drew mixed reactions. The acting was among the best of the night, and that says a lot. On comparing notes with others who had seen it the night before, it seems the plots were completely different on the two nights. In this light, the quality of what I saw deserves even more commendation. The principal completely stole the show. Portraying the role beautifully with perfect timing and poise, his only drawback was that he didn’t look like the average cane wielding school principal. But everyone was superb, I really can’t complain about the acting. The drawback from the third play was the wisdom of using forum theatre in such a setting. I felt the crowd was too big to have effective forum theatre. Yesterday, and i’m told saturday night’s performance too, was drawn out and a bit too much of a drama class for my liking. It would have been ideal for a smaller group of ppl. That said, kudos to Stages for daring to be as innovative as they were, very pleasantly surprised to see that sort of thing in Sri Lanka. Overall, very enjoyable and must be watched by anyone who enjoys and supports drama.
Ah hot off the press, old boss replied, I got a temp job, woot.
