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This evening (very early, 5:15), Rick Bowes, Jim Patrick Kelly, Mary Robinette Kowal, and I attended a performance of three one acts: Stanislaw Lem's How the World Was Saved, translated by Michael Kandel, who was coincidentally also in the audience with his charming wife Margie; On the Nature of Time by Bill Pronzini and Barry N. Malzberg; and There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury.
The first play--with puppets--was wonderful (even though I'm not all that fond of Lem). It's about a scientist who builds a robot that can create anything that starts with the letter "n" and the fellow scientist whose challenge causes the robot to deconstruct the world. The puppets, music, robot (played by a human), and set --made up with many light bulbs were all very fine.
The second play was a perfectly realized time travel story about a man who recounts how, as a boy, he dreamed of discovering his difficult father murdered in his study. The special effects with a scrim and holographic--seeming lighting worked very well. I hope Barry has had a chance to see the performance. I'd think he would have enjoyed it.
The third, from a classic Bradbury story that really upset me when I first read it years ago, is about a completely mechanized house that continues to do all it's been programmed to do, despite the fact that the family who lived there -and everything else in the area--has been obliterated by a nuclear bomb. Three young women carry large white squares that represented the walls of the house. Rain is created by pouring water from a basin into a bucket and at times, letting it roll over the squares. The set was minimal, the overall effect powerful.
Afterward, we discovered that Liz Gorinsky of Tor was also in the audience. All of us but Liz (she had another engagement) went to dinner at Paris Commune after.
The last performance is at 151 Bank street in the west village on Saturday 7:30. If you're in the NYC area and can make it, I highly recommend it.
Info on there will be soft rains
The first play--with puppets--was wonderful (even though I'm not all that fond of Lem). It's about a scientist who builds a robot that can create anything that starts with the letter "n" and the fellow scientist whose challenge causes the robot to deconstruct the world. The puppets, music, robot (played by a human), and set --made up with many light bulbs were all very fine.
The second play was a perfectly realized time travel story about a man who recounts how, as a boy, he dreamed of discovering his difficult father murdered in his study. The special effects with a scrim and holographic--seeming lighting worked very well. I hope Barry has had a chance to see the performance. I'd think he would have enjoyed it.
The third, from a classic Bradbury story that really upset me when I first read it years ago, is about a completely mechanized house that continues to do all it's been programmed to do, despite the fact that the family who lived there -and everything else in the area--has been obliterated by a nuclear bomb. Three young women carry large white squares that represented the walls of the house. Rain is created by pouring water from a basin into a bucket and at times, letting it roll over the squares. The set was minimal, the overall effect powerful.
Afterward, we discovered that Liz Gorinsky of Tor was also in the audience. All of us but Liz (she had another engagement) went to dinner at Paris Commune after.
The last performance is at 151 Bank street in the west village on Saturday 7:30. If you're in the NYC area and can make it, I highly recommend it.
Info on there will be soft rains
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