Travesties
I agree with some of what Louise says about Mark and Ginger’s daughter Molly’s latest play “Travesties,†but if I were writing the review I would have donated more page space to the acting, which to our minds (I’m speaking for Diane too), was extraordinarily good. The best we’ve seen in any of her plays. Combine that level of performance with a script that teases history and demands more focus that my brain has available cells and you’ve got one terrific afternoon . And, again, we had close-up seats in a small theatre. It’s been fun riding Molly’s coattails but after this play she’s moving back to New York.
After the play we ate dinner at Addis Red Sea, an Ethiopian restaurant across the street from the theater.
So, do you think we can handle Travesties without a trip to the library? I remember The Importance of Being Earnest from my childhood. There was a period of about 5 years when my parents took me to a large number of plays (at Smith College). I remember TIoBE, Pygmalion, Arms and the Man, and the Caucasian Chalk Circle quite clearly. But the reviews and comments do make me feel somewhat daunted.
Comment by jennifer — April 18, 2008 @ 8:03 pm
I think Dan would have hated this play because he has this fundamental flaw that requires him to understand everything he reads or watches. From reading your comments on the blog over the years I’d say you have the same problem. Me? I don’t get anything anymore so this performance was par for my increasingly short course. However, I was absolutely riveted by the acting which was so seamless it was as if they weren’t acting at all.
Whether you and Lew understand every word or not won’t detract from the intellectual challenge. You’ll be delighted.
Comment by michael — April 18, 2008 @ 8:58 pm
It’ll be perfect, because I’m always looking for ways to feel bad about myself. (Note to editorial types — bad, not badly, IS correct. People with leprosy feel badly.) I’ll enjoy it a lot, AND I’ll be able to feel bad that I didn’t know more before I saw it, so that I would have enjoyed it more.
Comment by jennifer — April 19, 2008 @ 7:35 am
Lot’s of folks agree with you Jennifer but then I found this on bartleby.com:
The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993.
feel bad, feel badly
Whatever line you take—to use both, differentiating on some semantic basis or other, to use only feel bad and proscribe feel badly, or to follow some other line—you will find some Standard users who agree with you and others who do not. Some differentiate their choices on the basis of part of speech and conclude that since feel is a linking verb that takes a predicate adjective, bad, not badly, is called for, regardless of whether the cause is poor health or guilt feelings. Others point out that bad is a flat adverb and that therefore the -ly adverb form is wholly unnecessary and overcorrective. Still others say that badly goes with emotion, bad with physical health; and the converse is also occasionally argued too. Still others insist that the best thing to do is avoid badly entirely, and still others return to the old argument that to feel badly is to describe a flawed sense of touch. There may be some truth in each of these, but none of them is a satisfactory explanation for this pattern of Standard divided usage. Best advice: if you say and write feels bad, you may irritate fewer people than you will with feel badly, but you should be aware that this usage problem continues alive and vigorous, and neither the explanations nor the solutions being offered are likely to satisfy everyone.
Whatever.
What makes me feel bad is when someone hesitates to post a comment for fear of the lurking grammar police on this blog. Have we really come to that?
Comment by michael — April 19, 2008 @ 9:27 am
How much time did you spend on trying to prove me wrong? (I feel honored; just want to know how honored.)
Comment by jennifer — April 19, 2008 @ 2:27 pm
No time at all. The first link was emphatic, as you were:
You Feel Bad–You Don’t Feel Badly, Unless Your Hands Are Damaged!
by Tina Blue
SHORT, QUICK VERSION OF EXPLANATION:
~I feel sad. (not I feel sadly.)
~She feels pretty. (not She feels prettily.)
~He feels hopeless. (not He feels hopelessly.)
~They feel lighthearted. (not They feel lightheartedly.)
~This velvet feels soft. (not This velvet feels softly.)
But I thought it was too simplistic so I clicked on Bartleby.
I always thought it was I feel bad.
Comment by michael — April 19, 2008 @ 6:21 pm
I won’t feel verily honoredly, then.
Comment by jennifer — April 20, 2008 @ 8:42 pm