Back from the theatre...
Aug. 4th, 2005 11:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matrixrefugeeI don't think I've described the Vokes Theatre before, at least, not on this journal... It's a *tiny* little theatre which a semi-retired actress, Beatrice Herford, built back in 1905 for a group of acting buddies of hers, where they could put on small shows. It's now the home of a small semi-professional theatre company, the Vokes Players, who put on about three or four shows a year, including tonight's offering, "The Learned Ladies".
Quick plot: Henriette, the younger daughter of a wealthy Parisian lady, wants to marry the love of her life, but her mother, a noisy termagant who's taken the intellectual life to the extreeme, wants her to marry a pompous, phony intellectual writer of terrible poetry, who wants nothing more than to get his hooks Henriette's inheritance. At first glance, you might think it's a slam against women's right to education, but then you realize, it's a send-up of people who get so hung up on intellectual matters that they lose sight of practical things, and it's also really a defense for self-respecting women who just want to be a good wife and mom to their kids. Henriette has every oppurtunity to be just as much of an intellectual as her mother and older sister, but she's happier with the prospect of having a family.
The art design was incredible: 17th century/Baroque costumes and props and set (a single, all-purpose box set, since the stage is *tiny*). Great wigs on the guys, including this nearly-waist length brown wig for Henriette's father!
Quick plot: Henriette, the younger daughter of a wealthy Parisian lady, wants to marry the love of her life, but her mother, a noisy termagant who's taken the intellectual life to the extreeme, wants her to marry a pompous, phony intellectual writer of terrible poetry, who wants nothing more than to get his hooks Henriette's inheritance. At first glance, you might think it's a slam against women's right to education, but then you realize, it's a send-up of people who get so hung up on intellectual matters that they lose sight of practical things, and it's also really a defense for self-respecting women who just want to be a good wife and mom to their kids. Henriette has every oppurtunity to be just as much of an intellectual as her mother and older sister, but she's happier with the prospect of having a family.
The art design was incredible: 17th century/Baroque costumes and props and set (a single, all-purpose box set, since the stage is *tiny*). Great wigs on the guys, including this nearly-waist length brown wig for Henriette's father!
