A Tale of Two Cities at HCT

If I had to pick a favorite Charles Dickens novel it would definitely be A Tale of Two Cities and I count HCT's 2011 production of this classic tale as one of their best. HCT is producing this stirring musical again and I had the chance to see it last night. I loved it so much and I was absolutely thrilled to see Kyle Olsen, my favorite actor from the earlier production, reprise his role as Sydney Carton. Lucie Manette (Brittany Andam), a young woman in London who believes that she is an orphan, learns that her father Dr. Alexander Manette (David Weeks) is still alive after having been wrongfully imprisoned in the Bastille by the Marquise St. Evremonde (Josh Egbert). She travels to Paris to bring him home to London and meets Charles Darnay (Ren Cottam), the nephew of Evremonde who has renounced his ties to the aristocracy, on the journey and they fall in love. Darnay is wrongfully accused of treason upon arrival in London but the dissolute lawyer Sydney Carton (Olsen) clears his name. Carton is also secretly in love with Lucie, but when she marries Darnay, he remains a friend of the family and becomes attached to her daughter Lucie (Leilani Walker). In Paris, Evremonde is responsible for the death of a child when his carriage runs him over in front of the Defarge's wine shop. Madame Defarge (Adrien Swenson), who has a grudge against Evremonde, encourages the boy's father, Gaspard (Alix DeBirk), to murder him which ultimately leads to revolution. Darnay feels that he must return to Paris to rescue Evremonde's household but he is immediately arrested as an aristocrat, denounced by Madame Defarge who wants to wipe out all descendants of Evremonde, and sentenced to the guillotine. This prompts Carton to make the ultimate sacrifice to save Darnay and show his love for Lucie and her daughter. The story is a bit convoluted (it is Charles Dickens, after all) but I was really impressed with the clever use of projections to denote the various locations in London and Paris and this really helped me follow the action. This show is also very complicated technically with set pieces coming up from the pit, down from the rafters, and in from the wings during every scene and these transitions happen seamlessly. One of the things I liked best about the 2011 production was the set featuring cobblestone paths and a large wooden guillotine. The set for this show is very different, with large glass panels and metal grates in the floor that are illuminated with red and blue lights, but no less dramatic. All of the performances are wonderful and I especially loved Swenson's version of "Out of Sight, Out of Mind," Andam's version of "Without a Word," and her version of "Now at Last" with Cottam. However, I was absolutely captivated by Olsen's portrayal of Carton. He brought me to tears during his emotional rendition of "If Dreams Came True" and then once again as he walks up the steps to the guillotine in the final scene. I really loved this incredibly moving show and I highly recommend it. It runs on the Young Living Stage through March 20 but tickets are very limited (go here) so act quickly!

Note:  Don't miss HCT's hilarious production of The Play That Goes Wrong on the Jewel Box Stage (go here for tickets).

The World to Come

Yesterday afternoon I checked another new release off my list by seeing The World to Come.  I have been looking forward to this movie ever since I saw a trailer a few weeks ago because it is exactly the type of period piece that I love.  Abigail (Katherine Waterston) and her taciturn husband Dyer (Casey Affleck, in a quietly moving performance) are mourning the recent death of their young daughter on the frontier in the mid-19th century.  She begins the new year by recording the details of her lonely and mundane life of hard work in a ledger and continues each day.  Everything changes when Tallie (Vanessa Kirby) and her husband Finney (Christopher Abbott) begin renting a nearby farm.  Tallie visits Abigail every afternoon and they find fulfillment in their friendship which slowly becomes an all-encompassing passion.  Eventually their husbands start to suspect that their relationship might be something more.  Dyer is sad because Abigail only seems to smile when Tallie is around but Finney is angry that Tallie is not performing her wifely duties.  When Finney forces Tallie to move to another farm miles away, Abigail does not know if she can return to her empty and isolated life.  This story of forbidden love is moody, atmospheric, and restrained.  Waterston and Kirby are absolutely smoldering on screen and convey so much longing with with just a glance or the briefest touch of their hands so, when they finally do give in to their feelings, it is incredibly powerful.  I loved the juxtaposition between the dark and muted landscape whenever Abigail is with Dyer with the warm glow of lanterns inside the cabin and the sun-dappled picnics outdoors when she is with Tallie.  Just like Abigail, I eagerly anticipated the moment when Tallie would appear and light up the screen.  The dialogue is so poetic and I often felt like I was watching an adaptation of a classic 19th century novel that I read in high school.  I especially loved the reference to King Lear when they talk about being caged birds who can still sing.  The score, heavy on woodwinds, is extremely evocative and adds so much to the mood while the cinematography is almost hypnotic.  The resolution is heartbreaking but I absolutely loved this movie and I recommend it to fans of period dramas.

Judas and the Black Messiah

The next new release on my must-see list was Judas and the Black Messiah and I went to see it yesterday.  It is an amazing movie but it was also deeply upsetting to me.  Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya), the Chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panthers, works to unify the disparate groups in Chicago in a Rainbow Coalition to protest against police brutality in the late 1960s.  FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover (Martin Sheen) believes that the Black Panthers are a security threat to the United States and fears Hampton's power, dubbing him the "Black Messiah."  He encourages his agents to take him down through whatever means necessary so Special Agent Roy Mitchell (Jesse Plemons) coerces William O'Neal (Lakeith Stanfield), a car thief who is facing a lengthy jail sentence for impersonating an agent, into infiltrating the Black Panthers.  O'Neal eventually rises to become Hampton's chief of security while providing information to the FBI which, among other things, is used to facilitate the assassination of Hampton in a police raid.  The story is so compelling.  It is obviously a dramatization of actual events (I don't know a lot about the Black Panthers beyond the propaganda I’ve been taught all of my life) but I found the portrayal of Hampton to be incredibly sympathetic, especially in scenes where he takes all of the weapons from his followers before meeting with a rival gang, when he refuses O'Neal's offer of C-4 to blow up city hall, and when he allocates money given to him personally for a community medical center.  This characterization makes his assassination even more disturbing and I had an almost visceral reaction to its portrayal, particularly the close-up of Hampton's pregnant girlfriend Deborah Johnson (Dominique Fishback) as he is shot.  It was also very difficult to watch scenes involving altercations between the Black Panthers and the police in light of recent events because they highlight the fact that we still have so far to go in the fight for racial equality.  All of the performances are stellar!  Kaluuya is absolutely electrifying as the revolutionary, especially during his speeches to crowds.  Stanfield does a brilliant job of portraying O'Neal's growing disillusionment with his role as he comes to believe in what Hampton is doing and Plemons gives a highly nuanced performance, particularly in an incredibly poignant scene where Mitchell realizes, just for a moment, that what the FBI is doing is wrong.  Finally, I loved the cinematography and the score which call to mind the gritty crime dramas of the 70s.  This is a powerful movie that is, unfortunately, so relevant for today and I think everyone should see it.

Land

There are so many new movies out right now and I want to see them all!  I began last night with Land, which I have been anticipating for what seems like forever, and I really liked it.  Edee (Robin Wright) is mourning the unexpected death of her husband and son and has lost the will to live.  She buys a cabin and a piece of land in a remote area of the Rocky Mountains and retreats from the outside world.  She is clearly unprepared for the harsh conditions, possibly by design, and is near death when she is found by Miguel (Demian Bichir) and Alawa (Sarah Dawn Pledge), a hunter and nurse, respectively, who live in the nearest town.  They nurse her back to health and then Miguel offers to teach her how to trap and hunt along with other survival skills.  As he teaches Edee how to live in the wild, he also teaches her how to live with her grief.  The narrative is slow and contemplative but my attention never wavered.  Retreating into nature in order to heal is a familiar theme, and this movie doesn't really have anything new to say about it, but it is one that I particularly enjoy because I also find a great deal of solace in nature.  I found Edee's story to be particularly compelling because, while she yearns for solitude after the world becomes too much to bear, it is ultimately a human connection that helps her to heal.  I also really loved Miguel's journey to redemption because he needs Edee to help him deal with his own trauma as much as she needs him.  Both Wright and Bichir give understated but powerful performances and often convey more emotion in the silences that permeate this movie rather than through dialogue.  The cinematography is absolutely gorgeous and I loved all of the shots of the stunning scenery, in all four seasons, that are interspersed throughout.  This has a few flaws (in my opinion Into the Wild and Wild tell the same story much better) but I enjoyed it and would recommend it.

Little Fish

Last night I saw the independent film Little Fish and I found it to be deeply affecting (I was an emotional mess by the end of it).  In the near future Emma (Olivia Cooke), a veterinary tech, and Jude (Jack O'Connell), a photographer, meet each other, fall in love, and get married in the midst of a global pandemic (this movie was written and filmed before our current pandemic).  A mysterious virus known as NIA (Neuroinflammatory Affliction), which causes people to lose their memories all at once or little by little, is spreading rapidly and, since it has no cure, it is causing the breakdown of society as people suddenly forget who they are and how to do their jobs.  Jude and Emma are devastated when they see the virus destroy the relationship between their two best friends Ben (Raul Castillo) and Samantha (Soko) and they fearfully look for the signs in each other.  When Jude gets the virus, Emma does everything she can to get him into a controversial clinical trial for a possible cure and, when that option falls through, she does everything she can to keep the memory of their love alive.  The narrative involves a series of haunting and beautifully composed vignettes (including one that informs the title) about their life together in the past interspersed with attempts to remember these events in the present and this device is especially effective at portraying the ephemeral nature of memory.  The twist at the end is absolutely heartbreaking and I know that I will be thinking about it for a long time.  Cooke and O'Connell give incredibly touching performances, especially in the scenes where Jude can't remember Emma, and their chemistry together makes their love story even more poignant.  The hazy cinematography and evocative score also add to the lyrical tone.  I really loved this movie and I definitely recommend seeking it out (it is a little bit under the radar in my neck of the woods).