…and here I am in San Francisco, listening to industrial electronica, like early stuff, could it even be Throbbing Gristle? (the heart leaps!) in a chilly hip cafe across from the Travelling Jewish Theatre, where Big Death & Little Death opens Saturday night. It’s the kind of bleak day you never get in Los Angeles, steel-gray clouds, indifferent rain, cold that doesn’t make your teeth shake, just kind of mildly dispirits you. The play looks fantastic — the director, Sean Daniels, has given it just the light, driving comic rhythm it needs and craves. Seven years on from inception, this play — this unruly, lumpen, nose-thumbing mutant of a play — thrives. Strange. None of us knows where life will take us — and I could not have known, six years on from the writing of this play, that I’d be sitting in this throbbing gristle of a cafe watching gloom collect like plaque on teeth — but who could be happier in life than the shivering, vaguely melancholic writer, dislocated and disquieted, but given the opportunity, however mercurial and temporary, to make people laugh?
Mickey,
Great to see that you’re up and blogging again. I wholeheartedly await Big Death’s debut in Los Angeles. While you’re in San Francisco, may I recommend you take the tour into Alcatraz? I’ve never been, but my parents went recently and they were raving. Refer to http://www.alcatrazcruises.com. And when you return to the city of asthmatic angels coughing in the smog, let’s please meet up.
We’ve not met, but I just wanted to let you know I saw this production at Crowded Fire last
weekend, and I really enjoyed it…if that’s the word for it. “It moved me” may be more
appropriate. Just before the show, I found out a good friend of mine in L.A. had just
auditioned for the premiere of “Bleedrail” down there. One of those “small world” moments
that only struck me more while watching the production.
The gist is: my friend didn’t get called back, but was really enthusiastic about what she had
read (sides only), and I think she would really like “Big Death Little Death”, as well. Where
can I get a copy for her? I don’t see it on Sam French, Dramatists, or Amazon.
Keep up the good work.
Best,
Ryan
my e-mail is ryantasker@gmail.com, just in case you don’t see it as the moderator.
Cheers.