One of things I love about theater is that’s so interpretative. Is that a word? I don’t mean like ‘dance.’ I mean theater. What I mean is, One single play could be interpreted hundreds of ways, visually and viscerally. Like Hedda Gabler, a play which concerns a discontent housewife. Sort of. Well, that’s only the beginning of a thing that could be dark, sick, funny, nostalgic, or all. It’s about a villian, or perhaps feminist, or perhaps victim of society – a newlywed with a gun; a pretty thing who’d light your baby on fire then write a poem about it.

It’s getting re-visited now at the Roundabout, with a new translation by my prof from New School, Chris Shinn, starring Mary Louise Parker.

…But before Ms. Parker, in another production, it was Cate Blanchette –

It was Kate Burton –

 

and – my personal favorite – it was Elizabeth Marvel at NYTW in 2004, drenched in tomato juice.

The fact that one woman penned by a brooding Norwegian at the turn of the century could be re-imagined as so many different kinds of contemporary women – that it’s so powerful that its visited and visited over and over again – I just like that.

Yes, so, I love plays. What. Please feel free to stuff me in my locker, put peanut butter in my hair, or do whatever it is that you varsity cheerleaders do.