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| Fat Ham and joy (major spoilers for Fat Ham) | |
| Posted by: mikem 01:04 pm EDT 08/03/22 | |
| In reply to: There were cameras at POTUS tonight (and some of y'all undersold it!) - DistantDrumming 12:34 am EDT 08/03/22 | |
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| (major spoilers for Fat Ham) DistantDrumming, thank you for bringing up Fat Ham, which I wanted to talk about. It seems a bunch of people here have seen the show, but I don't think there's been a lot of conversation about it. I think Fat Ham was a worthy Pulitzer winner, chock full of ideas as many of the recent winners have been, but it seemed less overstuffed than some others. I was very struck by the ending, which admittedly does not really seem to develop completely organically from what came before. It seemed like the playwright needed to end the show, but his decision to move the show into a celebration of joy was exactly what I needed, both after seeing a lot of ominous plays like The Minutes but also after dealing with all the wackiness and dysfunction of our recent real-life world. Like DistantDrumming says, it felt so good to have a fun time in the theater. "We tragic," our protagonist says about his family, and he is right. But rather than resign themselves to tragedy and wallow in it, they decide to move beyond that and celebrate themselves as much as they can. And by watching them celebrate and give each other joy, we can celebrate too for a few minutes, and we can remind ourselves that, even when surrounded by tragedy, we can still choose to let joy and celebration in as much as we can. |
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| re: Fat Ham and joy (major spoilers for Fat Ham) | |
| Posted by: DistantDrumming 03:40 pm EDT 08/03/22 | |
| In reply to: Fat Ham and joy (major spoilers for Fat Ham) - mikem 01:04 pm EDT 08/03/22 | |
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| mikem, the Fat Ham ending was totally bonkers and, yes, I agree, at the same time, just felt right for the work. It was one of those "only in the theatre" moments which probably couldn't work in film or TV and felt like a triumphant, defiant and wonderfully irreverent final push against toxic masculinity. | |
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| re: Fat Ham and joy (major spoilers for Fat Ham) | |
| Posted by: mikem 11:26 am EDT 08/04/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Fat Ham and joy (major spoilers for Fat Ham) - DistantDrumming 03:40 pm EDT 08/03/22 | |
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| DistantDrumming, that's a great way of putting it: bonkers yet just right. And you're also right that the ending wouldn't work at all outside of the theater. I've said before that my big attraction to the theater is the communal aspect between the actor and the audience, and that joyful intermingling at the end of the show, where everyone in the room is celebrating together, is what makes it work. | |
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| re: Fat Ham and joy (major spoilers for Fat Ham) | |
| Posted by: stgmgr 01:21 am EDT 08/06/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Fat Ham and joy (major spoilers for Fat Ham) - mikem 11:26 am EDT 08/04/22 | |
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| For what it's worth, when I saw Fat Ham, I found to my surprise that my eyes began to leak at the reveal of the final scene. Actual tears of joy. | |
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| re: Fat Ham and joy (major spoilers for Fat Ham) | |
| Posted by: DistantDrumming 08:13 pm EDT 08/06/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Fat Ham and joy (major spoilers for Fat Ham) - stgmgr 01:21 am EDT 08/06/22 | |
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| I don't find that surprising at all. Something can be funny, surprising, even a bit silly... AND moving all at once. | |
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