oscar whets ones appetite for harris

Oscar: 'whets one's appetite for Harris'

* Oscar and the Pink Lady continues to elicit similarly mixed

responses, with Paul Hodgins of The Orange County Register

describing Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt's play as 'too slight a vehicle'

for Ms Harris' 'impressive suite of talents'.

Also like some reviewers before him, he fails to find the character of

Oscar entirely convincing for his age:

[...] Oscar is simply too precocious and conveniently wordsmith-y

to be plausible. He talks like a literary conceit, not a little

boy. [...]

He is alone however in meting out the first explicit criticism of Ms

Harris, saying she 'doesn't always do a crystal-clear job of

delineating character', although the positive comments far outweigh

the negative in regard to the actress. Hodgins praises her overall

performance as 'spontaneous, natural and completely unforced',

describing that as 'a treat to see in such an intimate environment.'

* Secondly, we say 'Bereg Utopii!' as the third version of The Coast

of Utopia opens in Russia. John Freedman, in a pre-publication

review for The Moscow Times on October 12th, describes the long

run-up to this point:

[...] Two years in the making, the "Utopia" project has enjoyed

hands-on participation from Stoppard, who has visited Russia

frequently to meet the troupe of the National Youth Theater and who

was prominently present at third-row center for the 10-hour opening

night last Saturday. To my knowledge there has never been a more

thorough collaboration between a Russian theater and a major

western playwright. This association has included readings,

rehearsals, trips to the Russian countryside, an educational

program run through several Moscow institutes and even a trip to

Sparrow Hills to clean off a monument to Herzen and his friend

Nikolai Ogaryov... [...]

In case you happen to be in Moscow, Freedman gives performance details

- 'Bereg Utopii plays October 20 and 27 at the National Youth Theater,

located at 2 Teatralnaya Ploshchad. MetroTeatralnaya. Tel. 692-0069,

692-1879, 692-6572.' And in case you can read Russian, here are two

(possibly?!) relevant websites: ramt.ru and stoppard.ru.

* Thirdly, Sir Tom has written a fascinating piece for Vanity Fair

about Pink Floydian Syd Barrett's relation to his play Rock 'n'

Roll. Mr Stoppard also makes an interesting revelation about his

working habits:

[...] With each play, I tend to become fixated on one particular

track and live with it for months, during the writing--my drug of

choice, just to get my brain sorted. Then I'd turn off the music

and start work. I wrote most of "The Coast of Utopia" between

listening to "Comfortably Numb" on repeat. [...]

* Fourthly, if there are any collectors among you, eBay has a number

of items relating to Rosemary Harris, including a 1976 Playbill

for The Royal Family and a copy of Life magazine from 1966 (with

cover girl Jackie Kennedy!)

* Fifthly, regarding release dates for Ms Ehle's latest projects,

IMDb is now giving the USA date for The Russell Girl as February

2008, meaning it will be out prior to Pride and Glory, which is

currently set for 14 March 2008 (UK and USA).