There are those times in the theatre where words are not needed. A simple look or gesture can speak volumes and inspire emotions that words can never accomplish.
More often than not, these images are burned into my brain and linger with me for months and even years if they're powerful enough.
What are some of your most memorable images?
My most recent one is from GREY GARDENS.
When the house begins to close in at the end of Act II and Little Edie stares out the window, desperately yearning for freedom after all we've seen her go through...that just brought me to tears. One of the most moving things I've seen in a long while.
"I love talking about nothing. It is the only thing I know anything about." - Oscar Wilde
The final image in LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT: Mary Tyrone, in a clean white dress, standing at the edge of the stage bathed in light, as the men in her life sit paralyzed looking on in the background. The true definition of haunting.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
The very opening of The Year of Magical Thinking. Music, the wind/wave sound, and the curtain just falls, revealing Vanessa Redgrave and a lone wooden chair on stage.
Then later when she again shows the bracelet she'd described as earlier "like the one I'd given Quintana".
And finally the last curtain drop when the lights go out.
Actually the whole show for me.
Experience live theater. Experience paintings. Experience books. Live, look and listen like artists! ~ imaginethis
LIVE THAT LESSON!!!!!!
The rain we knew is a thing of the past -
deep-delving, dark, deliberate you would say
browsing on spire and bogland; but today
our sky-blue slates are steaming in the sun,
our yachts tinkling and dancing in the bay
like racehorses. We contemplate at last
shining windows, a future forbidden to no one.
Derek Mahon
"Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets."
If done correctly, there are several scenes in "The Secret Garden" that can definitely be classified as a theatrically gorgeous sort of 'spooky.' Mary's and Neville's scenes with the dead women (names -- Lily and Rose, maybe? -- elude) have the potential to be hauntingly brilliant onstage.
Jack O'Brien's breath-taking opening sequences of all 3 Coast of Utopia parts - the wind, the bells, the haunting music, and then, finally, the waves and Herzen in the chair, clutching the glove.
The ending of part 3, as well, with all of them in front of the beautiful mural.
*** The image of Jim Tyrone in Josie Hogan's lap in the Quintero/Robards/Dewhurst Moon for the Misbegotten
Clara in shadow (I know there's a word for this sort of representation where everything is in black) walking slowly in front of a gorgeous yellow background. Transfixing, in my opinion. You can really feel her sorrow and yearning.
EDIT: Silhouette was the word!
Updated On: 4/9/07 at 08:04 PM
Josie's final line in A MOON FOR THE MISBEGOTTEN always kills me:
May you have your wish and die in your sleep soon, Jim, darling. May you rest forever in forgiveness and peace.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
I agree with Yankee on "COAST OF UTOPIA", the opening for each of the shows are breathtaking. I also have to add the closing sequence for Part 3: SALVAGE. When the "new generation" of revolutionaries looks toward the image of "utopia", with Herzen, Bakunin, and Ogarev sitting just staring at the audience, I was totally haunted.
EDIT:
A hauntingly SEXY image: (Another COU one) Dream Ethan Hawke at the end of Part Two: Shipwreck one the hull of the "boat" speaking to Herzen, with Ethan smoking a cigarette looking like the very image of sex itself. Whenever I have a bad day, I just think of that image, and everything is all right.
"Are you sorry for civilization? I am sorry for it too." ~Coast of Utopia: Shipwreck
Curtain call for Journey's End, and the moments before. I wont give anything away, but it was amazing. I've never quite cried like that during a theatrical experience, and I usually don't get choked up.
What YankeeFan wrote, YES, about THE COAST OF UTOPIA.
Also, I think another tremendously powerful moment was in AGNES OF GOD (1982-83), when Agnes runs to the back of the stage, throws herself face first against the curved/sloped back wall, and slides with her face to the ground, her hands streaking the blonde wood of the set with bright red blood, a la a crucifixion. It was startling and haunts me 25 years later... Updated On: 4/9/07 at 08:16 PM
The image of Victoria Clark in front of those church gates in Piazza durring "Fable" was quite spectacular, as was the entire production by Bartlett Sher.
My favorite is from Passion, when Fosca descends down the staircase..ah, chills!
When the barricade in Les Mis turns and we see Enjolras & Gavroche, that's my favorite. And, lastly, the finale of "Gimme Gimme" when Millie stretches her arms out..I love the lighting in that scene!
I totally agree with you FOAnatic. The moment the house started to come together in Grey Gardens my heart just broke! It was a truly incredible moment.
Other Beautiful images/Chill bumps... *First time I saw WICKED and Elphaba flew up in Defying Gravity. Thought it was an amazing moment of musical theatre. *The end of Act 1 in The Pirate Queen with the fire and sky full of stars is just BREATH TAKING. *And last but not least... the tattered sail the women bring down for Sea of Life.
*I agree about the barricade scene from Les Miserables, as the barricade turn slowly around and you see the dead young men lying there, with the flash of red from the flag they valiantly waved. What makes the scene even more poignant is the soft strains of BRING HIM HOME playing in the background.
*In the original Man of La Mancha with Richard Kiley which played in a theatre in the round, the sight of Miguel Cervantes slowly going up the long stairs ( on a stage that was starkly bare), on the way to his inquisition and possible execution...after he has told the story of the idealist/insane knight, Don Quijote.
*In the Australian arena version of THE BOY FROM OZ... against the stark backdrop of a solitary windmill from the outback, Hugh Jackman, as Peter Allen, sits slowly on the staircase leading down to the audience and sings the poignant ballad of the TENTERFIELD SADDLER. It was one of the most touching 11 o'clock numbers I have ever seen.
*For sheer beauty - when the backdrop of the beautiful Pyreenees Mountains unfolded in ASPECTS OF LOVE. The scenery was so beautiful and evocative of this undiscovered area of Southwestern France that the audience started clapping in sheer awe.
*For a beautiful combination of sight and sound -- the scene in THE WOMAN IN WHITE where the two sisters and the artist initially explore their feelings, against the backdrop of a small waterfall, with the sound of the water gently falling. A very tantalizing courtship scene - as we did not know yet who will fall in love with each other of this triangle.
*No particular scene I can identify, but PASSION evoked many haunting images for me.
Another Piazza one...when Clara is dressed all in white for her wedding, walks across the stage behind the gates during Clara's Interlude right before Love to Me. STUNNING!