Just learn't about Judgement Day at New York's Armory (closing Jan 10). I do applaud the venue's artistic director Pierre Audi (whose productions both directed by him and 'curated' by him at the Almeida Theater in London should be legendary but are so not thanks to the internet not having been born then). And of course the so outré and innovative director Richard Jones (did anyone see his La Bête on Broadway?)
An irony perhaps here, that Richard Jones attended the opening night of my production of Judgement Day in what one would call an off-Broadway theatre in London many many MANY moons ago. I was acting at the Old Vic and the then artistic director Jonathan Miller (who very sadly died a few weeks ago) brought along Richard. The director was Stephen Daldry, whose name now is not unknown but was certainly then. I was going to direct but didn't want to end up like Bob Fosse! Then again- his brilliant work speaks itself.
I haven't seen the production of Judgement Day though totally understand some of the reviews:
NYT: Indeed, for what amounts to a police procedural, “Judgment Day” isn’t much of a mystery: We see with our own eyes who causes the accident. What interests Horvath is the way truth, if denied sufficiently, in essence disappears as a category. With the contradictions of the characters pointedly not resolved, everyone is culpable; it becomes less of a whodunit than a whodidn’t.
The Observer: But Judgment Day is, finally, a small play in an oversize production that dilutes any ripple effect the fable might have in 2019. One could imagine it being just as effective at Classic Stage Company or the BAM Harvey without the pretentious gigantism that is the unfortunate byproduct of Armory presentations.
DON'T let me put anyone off seeing this play, though. Horváth was a brilliant dramatist, I would argue the equal of some of America's most famous. And his writing will always be writing of the today whatever decade or century.
[just as a p.s.- what would be fascinating in that enormous Armory space is a staging akin to deceased French director Patrice Chéreau . Bare staging, simply actors and words prowling and probing. Even more effective given the alienation the beloved Hudetz now finds himself within/without that suffocating community so akin to our own nowadays. That is something film can never replicate. Something that cyberspace now diminishes rather than expands. So many of us now living inside own heads. Not a good thing. A Hudetz so easily in the making from one never destined for harm, nor shame. That Armory space IS the cyberspace in which our actions will either redeem or destroy.]
I include a link here that may anger some folk. I don't wish that to be. Yet my memory is very good. I include it because it is the VERY reason I wanted this play to be seen way back when. The truth is always relative and I would be the first one to admit that memory may fail me. But I doubt that. Horváth opined it better than anybody:
And people will say
In far away blue days
It will become clear
What is false and what is true.
What is false will perish
Although it rules today
What is true shall come
Although it dies today.
- Ödön von Horváth (found in his pocket after his death)
I hope I haven't offended anybody mentioned above- that is totally not my intention. I am pleased that they all had the careers that they had. And I am rather more pleased that I leant what the world really had to offer apart from that success. And I thank from the bottom of my heart Dr. Jonathan Miller for that. His wisdom. His questioning. His kindness.
The greatest playwrights write words that can both blow kisses to the moon, throw flames into ice and leave a stage black with fury. What did I read about Bob Fosse deciding his art? Akin to: when one can no longer speak then you sing. When you can longer sing then you dance. That has become a wondrous trademark of director Ivo van Hove. Many other great directors have done that, though, just not so willfully other. Van Hove and Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker doing West Side Story! Now that's an event. U don't wanna fall off that helluva mountain…I'm sure they won't.
As an unnecessary postscript: Fosse/Verdon isn't the truth - yet not so far from it. But what good would be THAT TRUTH IF THERE WAS SUCH? SERIOUSLY. I ASK YOU? !
What did Bob Fosse do in his private life that countless other totally less talented such did countlessly? With no acrimony whatsoever and with no interest in the art of theater and dance? Not for a moment am I condoning anything that Mr Fosse did or didn't. Only: he was one helluva talented and totally committed guy to his art. And the women that he loved.
Ya 'al know what i'm a saying….
We all need to dance some more ‘take off those fuckin’ designer shoes’ and dance…
the barefoot Racoons at The Tonys awaits…..!
by the way,,,I received a beautifully inscribed donut with acorns. peanuts and something nefarious from an anonymous who was in the audience for U%Moo Mooversen's Met performance. They remember Moo singing I'll Never Love This Way Again and how he totally overcame the 'n' 'moo' impediment in lyrics with his back-up moos. It was (as the small paw prints on the donut went…
PAYWALL …!!! - ya'all have the acess code so 'hoof' that !
