By Ruth Leon *
The Theatre Royal, Stratford East, is a wonderful, crumbling, turn-of-the-last-century theatre deep in London's East End. Situated in the poorest borough of the city and a depressing 90-minute train journey away from civilization or, at least, other theatres, it has always had a reputation for encouraging the avant garde. Its dilapidation is, in itself, a statement that what matters is what's on stage rather than in the faded red plush auditorium and, until the ornately carved roof finally drops on our heads, I continue to make the pilgrimage to the East End to support work which, surprisingly often, transfers to the West End or to Broadway although how they do it on a budget smaller than what Paris Hilton spends on shoes I can't imagine.
My latest trip was to see the U.K. premiere of I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky, which closed July 17, an opera/operetta/play/musical by the great American composer John Adams (Nixon in China) and I report here that the music, while initially difficult, is ultimately sublime, replete with his trademark shapes and subtlety.
Set in Los Angeles at the time of the catastrophic 1994 Northridge earthquake it takes a group of disparate city residents — a petty criminal, a social worker, a preacher, a cop, etc. — and tells their stories through the poems of the late June Jordan.
07 Sep 2010
Michael Arden and Rosalie Craig photo by Catherine Ashmore
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