Moderately Discombobulated and Disconcerted

I saw such a great play last night. Lillian Hellman, never change. Toys in the Attic, done by Blindfaith Theatre at The Viaduct: SO GOOD. So good, in fact, that I got back home still reeling from the emotional charge and went to bed without setting my alarm, hence this morning's discombobulation and disconcernation. At least I'm a morning person, so I still got to work on time thanks to some heroic efforts.

Hold on, must go grab breakfast.

Okay, I'm now armed with a bagel. Returning to the topic at hand: did I mention SO GOOD? Lillian Hellman always takes my breath away with her twisted, twisted plots (The Children's Hour, holy crap: I saw it years ago and it's still imprinted on my brain).

I have no experience to substantiate this opinion, but I think that her roles must be very difficult to play. Hellman's characters always have hidden (twisted) depths that slowly emerge over the course of the play, and the challenge for the actor is to make it both entirely natural and a complete surprise.

Related: Hellman's tendency to include unusual sexual proclivities in her characters has always made me wonder exactly on what experiences she was drawing. To Wikipedia!

No word on the sexual creepiness, but: "She was romantically involved for 30 years with mystery and crime writer Dashiell Hammett (and was the inspiration for his character Nora Charles ), and was also a long-time friend and the literary executor* of author Dorothy Parker."

Okay, I'm trying not to have an paroxysms of joy here, but Dashiell Hammett is one of my very favorite authors, and I've recently gotten on board the Dorothy Parker Is Awesome train. Surely someone, somewhere has written a fictionalized account of their relationships. Or heck, I'll take non-fiction, too. But come on, the novel would be fantastic! I'd write it, but that would involve research, and eh.

What was I talking about? Oh, right, the play. Still so good! Tragically, the actors (if one counts the walk-ons), outnumbered the audience. Jackie and I constituted more than 20% of the audience. Sad! Especially since it was so good. The play closes Sunday, and it's obviously not sold out, so if you live in Chicago I highly recommend attending.


* Wouldn't that be executrix? I'm just saying.