I can see The sky's pale belly glowing and growing big, Soon to deliver the moon.
Those truly are lovely lines!
I've heard of this play, but knew nothing about it. Thanks for the super intro, which make the play, and this production, very intriguing sounding (I like what you say about the Appalachian setting, and particularly what you say in your footnote about each little town having its own religion)--whereas the synopsis in Wikipedia just made it sound confused.
It's funny how blow-by-blow narration can miss out on essentials and reduce something meaningful to a mess, whereas something like your review, which takes the plot as given and concentrates on the pains and particulars of the characters, can really convey the essentials. Or at least, that's how it seems to me now, though I haven't read or seen the play yet.
blowing his nose like a particularly glutinous form of Victor Borge punctuation --laughed out loud at that.
Can you explain about the comparison to Pamela Dean's Tam Lin? Were you just reaching for something popular in order to set a benchmark that this should exceed, or is there something about that Tam Lin that relates to this play and that this play does better?
(And wow, that question comes off as somehow an attack, or at the very least overly interrogatory, but I don't mean it that way. I haven't read Pamela Dean's Tam Lin, either, though I've heard a lot about it. I'm just curious about the connection you're making between them.)
no subject
The sky's pale belly glowing and growing big,
Soon to deliver the moon.
Those truly are lovely lines!
I've heard of this play, but knew nothing about it. Thanks for the super intro, which make the play, and this production, very intriguing sounding (I like what you say about the Appalachian setting, and particularly what you say in your footnote about each little town having its own religion)--whereas the synopsis in Wikipedia just made it sound confused.
It's funny how blow-by-blow narration can miss out on essentials and reduce something meaningful to a mess, whereas something like your review, which takes the plot as given and concentrates on the pains and particulars of the characters, can really convey the essentials. Or at least, that's how it seems to me now, though I haven't read or seen the play yet.
blowing his nose like a particularly glutinous form of Victor Borge punctuation --laughed out loud at that.
Can you explain about the comparison to Pamela Dean's Tam Lin? Were you just reaching for something popular in order to set a benchmark that this should exceed, or is there something about that Tam Lin that relates to this play and that this play does better?
(And wow, that question comes off as somehow an attack, or at the very least overly interrogatory, but I don't mean it that way. I haven't read Pamela Dean's Tam Lin, either, though I've heard a lot about it. I'm just curious about the connection you're making between them.)