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Kad, I absolutely agree that Brecht wants a different relationship between the spectator and the show on stage, different from that described by Aristotle or Coleridge. I just don't think it has anything to do with being distant or intellectual or "cool".

BTW, I mis-paraphrased Courage above. She says, "I've haggled too long", not "too much": in her situation, a critical difference.

Daniel, we get it: you're smart. But as my beloved Grandmother used to say to me, "There's a difference between being glib and being wise." An argument that leaps wildly from period to period and from medium to medium and from art to astronomy is not very convincing in the end. I.e., WTF is "retarding the fourth wall"? Not even the worst interpreter of Brecht thinks he meant "distance" in terms of physical space, so placing the spectator somewhere down the road is beside the point.

But, for the record, Kate Cherry is a native-born Australian..As I understand it, her father, Wal Cherry, was in his day considered one of your country's leading interpreters of--you guessed it--Bertolt Brecht. If the Black Swan's current season seems to show an American influence, well, Kate was educated here. But she and her theater have been a major source for new Australian plays, and, before she went to Perth, she worked mainly in Sydney and Melbourne.

Updated On: 1/26/16 at 07:13 PM

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Updated On: 1/30/16 at 09:17 AM

Daniel, Daniel, Daniel! Reread my last post. I quoted my own grandmother on the difference between being glib and being wise. To whom do you think she was speaking and why? Whom do you imagine she was describing? Self-deprecations is usually considered humorous, not hostile.

I'm sure it would be fun to chat with you if you would stop stumbling from topic to topic like a blind bull in a dramaturgical-theory shop. If Polish was your first language, your English is indeed impressive. But keep in mind the one thought per sentence, one topic per paragraph/post rule. How can adding Chatterton and Rowley to the mix possibly help?

I have time to respond to direct replies to my posts, but I don't have time to translate a tsunami of words.

As for my friend Kate, yes, her father taught at Temple University in Philadelphia and then later, I believe, worked at Shakespeare & Co. in Massachusetts. So, sure, Kate and her sister spent several years in the U.S. as teens and young adults. So? Are you suggesting her aesthetics have been tainted somehow?

BTW, Kate is married to American actor, Ken Ransom. Ken was a friend of mine for several years even before I met Kate in 1990. (No, I didn't introduce them. It's one of those theatrical coincidences.) He's been living in Australia with Kate and their son and working there for well more than a decade now. He's still American. We don't consider him contaminated by contact with Australians.

Updated On: 1/27/16 at 09:32 PM

I'm sure you're right, Charley. But Daniel reminds me of overly precocious students I had in the past: once I got them to calm down and just say what they meant, we often had mutually beneficial discussions.

So I'm making a last try here...

(Daniel, I'm talking about college students at a prestigious university; I'm not calling you a child.)

Wow, what a pompous ass you paint yourself as. It sounds that you don't actually WANT anyone to discuss things with you. Looks like you will actually get your wish.

YOU are the one that is trying to communicate, if you don't take the time to do that well, whey would we want to take the time to sift through it.

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Updated On: 1/30/16 at 10:15 AM

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Updated On: 1/30/16 at 11:03 AM

Daniel,

Charley's reference to "high. middle Polish" was an allusion to CANDIDE. It was a joke--and a witty one at that. AFAIK, there is no such thing as "high, middle Polish"..

If you insult a friend of mine and her family, you should expect me to respond with some indignation. It's called loyalty. Please note I disclosed the connection when her name first came up.

I haven't answered your questions (now numbered #1 and #2) because neither makes any sense to me.

I find your snobbery toward your Holocaust-surviving grandmother and her lack of education rather disturbing. Although I have far more years of schooling, I wouldn't speak of either of my grandmothers in the way you do. On the contrary, I quoted the one grandmother because I think she had a wise point. (Yes, I know. Not all relatives deserve respect. Maybe your Polish grandmother was a b*tch; but that's not a reason to harp on her supposed lack of education.)

ETA: I believe dramamama is female. You and I could both learn a thing or two from the clarity of her prose.

Updated On: 1/28/16 at 09:48 PM

If you haven't experienced the splendiferous joy that is Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music (or, indeed, Ingmar Bergman's Smiles of a Summer Night) then I suggest you do so posthaste.

We have all been found out as fools, ha-ha! What a jolly jape this fellow has made of us! Truly I am abashed to continue my repartee and shall quit this matter anon.

Kad said: "He gets points for trolling with flair, at least. "

But he loses those points for arguing with the voices in his own head.

To wit, I never said I taught at an Ivy League college, merely a prestigious one. Since he's Australian, perhaps he doesn't realize there are other prestigious schools in the U.S. I only mentioned the one where I did most of my teaching because I was comparing him to my students and I wanted to assure him that he was in good company.

I had no idea that minimal generosity would be used against me for three or more posts!

REF: "ancient lays" --> Thomas "Rowley" Chatterton: 11/20/1752 -- 8/24/1770.