Company and Suicide — Page 2

I mean, all the successful kings in Shakespeare's Histories were Slytherins, and the Ravenclaws were summarily deposed. Hufflepuffs have a fairly good survival rate, but never achieve *much*, and Gryffindors all rush into death far too readily.

I want that cross-stitched onto a pillow.

---

I don't remember hearing about a British production of Company where Bobby shot himself, so I would hazard a guess that it was a very small-scale fringe production.

Though I did see a production that was more frightening than Sweeney Todd; Bobby had downed half a bottle of Scotch by Sorry Grateful, so he was heading towards a similar conclusion.

Maybe Doyle saw the production I saw - the one I'm thinking of predates his.

The scarey thing wasn't so much the scotch (though I felt sorry for the actor having to perform whilst consuming so much liquid) as the explicit despair with which so many of the characters were portrayed. I've seen Company many times and this sticks in my mind as being set apart from the others, not necessarily better but much more severe.

I saw the 06 revival with a friend of mine who is rather ignorant to theatre, and doesn't tend to over analyze things. Yet she still insists that Bobby commits suicide at the end of "Being Alive". I've always thought she was just crazy.... I had no idea that anybody else thought this. Interesting..

I loved the fact that Sondheim laughed out loud at the non sequitur of Bobby committing suicide after singing "Being Alive."

Somehow that one liner seems even funnier to me now...maybe I need to go to bed.

---