Thursday, March 10, 2011
The Urge to Fly
NYTimes.com: "Oh, for the wings of a dove. Or an eagle, or even a chickadee. I mean, anything that might help an earthbound actor flap his way off a stage. There’s so much flying going on in the theater these days you wonder if an aviator’s license won’t soon be mandatory for participation in a Broadway or West End production. Then why do I get the feeling that when it comes to matters of flight, many of these shows never achieve lift-off?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I thought people were flying as early as Greek theater, wasn't there a literal Deus Ex Machina device? But brings up an interest perspective on theater. Theater asks you to imagine the impossible as possible, makes sense that humans would create characters/situations that fly and then build the technology to let that dream happen. But there's only so far the technology can go, pending anti-gravity belts; we won't ever be able to make people fly. Maybe there's something to be said about using the plasticity of the theater to make believe things are actually flying. I remember a picture from a production of Peter Pan where the children were lifted and carried around stage by Bunraku puppeteers. Their black clothing blending in and it looked like the children were flying (though it was obvious they weren't.) The ability to convince people that things are other than what they appear to be is part of the magic of theater, maybe the answer is not to try to get as close as we can get to actuality.
Julie Taymor made magic with the Lion King with the costumed animals. Everyone knows they weren't real giraffes but it was with how they suggested they were real that convinces audiences. Maybe she shouldn't have tried to work so hard to get Spider-Man to swing on webs and simply suggest it. Audiences would've bought it.
Flying is cool, that is why people like it. I always wanted to fly, it seems fun, it is faster, and then you could see everything. In theater when people are flying it is scary, I think that is part of why we like it. Because we know that it isn't real we are frightened that the actors could fall to their death. I guess there is the alternative, in Wicked for instance, because she has all the fabric around her it doesn't even really look like she is flying just that she is floating. This just makes us believe. Also people fly in the movies all the time and we never question it but because it is theater we have to figure out how our own eyes could trick us into believing that someone is really flying. It is like we are simultaneously realizing that the flying is fake and wanting to believe that it is real. Also I'm sorry but Peter Pan would not be Peter Pan with out the flying.
Post a Comment