Understanding plays, Storylines and life

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Understanding plays, Storylines and life

I went to see Hamlet at the Globe Theater last Thursday, but before I accepted the invitation from my friend I thought "what's the point, I won't understand the story and be highly irritated by all theatrics"..........in the end I did go, but after two and a half hours I had to leave as I thought what's the point in suffering any longer, my brain was flooded trying to understand and process the storylone.......I left feeling sad that my brain needs more time to process information and how frustrating this is at times....

I was curious how others experience plays, the worst experience for me would be opera......I feel no shame admiting this, as I know it has nothing to do with being borring or uncultured

Just take in the action first, and process the storyline later. There have been a few movies where the action was absorbing enough that when I left the theater, I had no idea what I had just seen. Often my "aha" moment would happen on the way to the car when all the pieces fell together and the movie finally made sense.

I don't worry about processing what I'm seeing, or how it makes me feel, in real time. Hamlet isn't one of Shakespeare's lighter works, and you might find the POV switch of the Hamlet story in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead to be more entertaining.

I can't follow plays. I can't see or hear the guys well enough to have the slightest clue what's going on.

Movies or books work better for me.

I love plays... That is... I love acting in plays. Basically I can act all crazy and in character onstage and people actually like it. I don't really care what people think of me at all either plus I'm awesome at memorizing.

However, when watching plays... I am more interested in the costumes and set more than what the people do... I don't even pay attention much to the storyline usually so I'm usually surprised when the play is over...

Last thing I saw live in a theater was the musical Annie. I was more interested in the music and the set and I remember being specifically annoyed by the fact that the radio the orphans would sit around was not historically accurate. Annie takes place in 1933 but the radio they had as a prop was from at least 1939 since FM radio was not broadcast until then.... (though it was patented in 1933). I suppose the technology was theoretically around in 1933 but there were no radios sold that could receive FM signals at that time... and even pretending that FM radios were sold in 1933 I find it VERY hard to believe that cutting edge radio technology would be found in a New York City orphanage during the great depression. GAH!

Other than that I did enjoy going to see it. The plot isn't all that complex and it is wonderful hearing live music.

I've noticed that I have trouble following the stories of books and movies if I'm not very, very interested in them. It would make me feel bad if it weren't for the fact that most people in the world don't pay attention to the stories. The next time you watch a movie with someone, ask them to name three characters in the film when it's over.

I find it exhausting when I have to pay attention to a movie or TV show for an hour or two. Forget plays and operas. I don't think I will ever be attending those. It's not that I find them boring. It's more that they are not engaging enough, and the flow of information is too slow, not too fast. I would rather read the play myself and act out the scenes in my head than watch other people act it out for me on a stage. I can only fully engage if I read it myself. Otherwise, the performance coincides with a state of mindlessness for me. Movies and shows are a little better, because the scenes change a lot more.