Sunday, December 14, 2014

The Valley of Astonishment

Hi Charlie,
I'm here to tell you how great is the section when we don't have a ton of homework to do!! 
Friday night, we went to the theater to see The Valley of Astonishment, a play by Peter Brook, a famous stage director.
The story is about a woman who has nothing extraordinary in appearances. This woman, Mrs Costas turns out to be "a phenomenon", who owns an outstanding memory. And having an outstanding memory is sometimes good but the most of the time, it can be an awful nightmare..
I found this play so great, it makes me think about so many things at the same time. I loved it!!

I found the staging interesting, it was simple and modern. The actors were great and funny, and the plot was very original, I loved it ! 
What about you?

Manon&Tara

11 comments:

  1. I found the play interesting, though Elea and I had very bad seats, just like you Manon I guess, as you were in front of me. I had to move every five minutes and my back still hurts :/ But the play was good.

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    1. I feel your pain Alicia, we had the same problem too :(

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    2. Oh I sat next to Manon and my hair even hung over the railing so it wasn't so comfortable, without talking about the seating’s of course but anyway I found it a really good play! Very funny !

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  2. Even though I was tired, I was spellbound. What a well-chosen title! To me the play was truly a valley of astonishment and magic - in more ways than one.
    It was at the same time poetic, funny and thought-provoking.
    To make a long story short: I loved it!
    Mrs. C.

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  3. I was also fascinated by Kathryn Hunter's voice and acting.
    If you want to know more about her:
    http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2013/feb/26/kathryn-hunter-actor-portrait
    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/31/theater/kathryn-hunter-in-kafkas-monkey-at-baryshnikov-center.html?_r=0

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  4. I really liked the play, even if I didn't understand some parts ! I found the voice of Kathryn Hunter fascinating too ! It was a great moment !

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  5. Did you know that Samy Costas was inspired by the life of Salomon Shereshevsky?
    His life story was revealed by Alexander Luria in The Life of a Mnemomist; a Little Book about a Vast Memory.
    http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/428157.The_Mind_of_a_Mnemonist
    Speaking of good books on the curious but fascinating workings of the human mind.
    I recommend Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. It was suggested to me last Friday by one of the students who saw the play .
    And I also recommend The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon.

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  6. I really liked this play I think it was really a chance for us to see it,the director of the play as a very good reputation I heard ... And like Alicia and Beverly I also had seats that where not the best ...:-/

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  7. I enjoyed the play, I wouldn't say I understood every thing but I got what the play was about. I really like the comedians and Amandine & I got the opportunity to talk to one of the comedians ( my favorite one) even though the seats were not that comfortable I had a great time.

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  8. I loved the play! There were a lot of funny moments and surprising ones. The story was original and very interesting but as everybody said some parts were hard to understand even though there were french subtitles (which I tried not to read). And from where I was I could watch the play comfortably which isn't the case for evrybody :(.

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  9. That was a very good play! The topic "memory" was already interesting and the compagny made a really good play at of it, moreover, I found that the characters were very pleasant, all the actors played very well!

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