Stark Sands in Fugitive Kind
Sep. 16th, 2009 11:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
askmehow
I'm still high on life after my amazing evening last night: I went to see Stark Sands in a play reading of Tennessee Williams's Fugitive Kind, and it was fantastic! My flatmate (aka Best Flatmate Ever!) surprised me with tickets because she knows how much I love Generation Kill.
As I said, it was a play reading rather than actual staged play, which meant that the actors weren't wearing costumes and there was no set dressing specifically for the play.* Still, it was very kinetic for a play reading; though the actors all had their scripts and made use of them, they didn't just stand around reciting lines: they made good use of the stage and moved around quite a bit. Plus, the major advantage of a play reading: huge ogling potential! (All the actors remain onstage the whole time; they sat down on chairs at the back of the stage between their scenes.) I had to work very hard not to stare at Stark the whole time, because damn, he looked good! Unlike the rest of the male cast, who were mostly playing bums (and were therefore dressed more casually in worn jeans and boots), Stark was rocking a crisp white shirt and trousers.
Stark was excellent as Leo, the idealistic radical student who writes incendiary critiques of the government in his university newspaper, and becomes increasingly frustrated and disillusioned as the play goes on, eventually getting expelled from university.
The fact that Stark looks so boyish (and he does, even more so in person than he did in Generation Kill) works very well in this role: I really felt for him, how young Leo seemed. He reminded me of myself and all my friends when we were undergrads, so eager and pretentious and well-meaning, all that idealism without any way of making it a concrete reality.
It was a small role, but a pivotal one. Stark had two impassioned speeches: one between Leo and his father where Leo decides to leave home, and the last scene of the play where he returns, defeated, because "the city was too big for [him]". He was great in both, all righteous indignation in the former; all his ideals shaken, sad and broken in the latter. I was just heartbroken for him at the end.
The rest of the cast were amazing as well, particularly their accents: the play's set in the South, and everyone's Southern accent was pretty good. Ironically, Stark didn't use a Southern accent for the character and spoke in his normal voice, but I think that was a deliberate choice to make Leo seem more "educated" because the character goes to university.
So to sum up: the play was great, Stark is gorgeous and very talented, La Flatmate is the best person ever, and I am very lucky!
* The stage did, however, have the set dressing for A Streetcar Named Desire, which is starting its run tonight, and the spooky gothic set for the latter play (spiral staircase of "Stella! Stella!" fame, and wrought iron panels running above the stage) added a lot to the atmosphere for Fugitive Kind
As I said, it was a play reading rather than actual staged play, which meant that the actors weren't wearing costumes and there was no set dressing specifically for the play.* Still, it was very kinetic for a play reading; though the actors all had their scripts and made use of them, they didn't just stand around reciting lines: they made good use of the stage and moved around quite a bit. Plus, the major advantage of a play reading: huge ogling potential! (All the actors remain onstage the whole time; they sat down on chairs at the back of the stage between their scenes.) I had to work very hard not to stare at Stark the whole time, because damn, he looked good! Unlike the rest of the male cast, who were mostly playing bums (and were therefore dressed more casually in worn jeans and boots), Stark was rocking a crisp white shirt and trousers.
Stark was excellent as Leo, the idealistic radical student who writes incendiary critiques of the government in his university newspaper, and becomes increasingly frustrated and disillusioned as the play goes on, eventually getting expelled from university.
The fact that Stark looks so boyish (and he does, even more so in person than he did in Generation Kill) works very well in this role: I really felt for him, how young Leo seemed. He reminded me of myself and all my friends when we were undergrads, so eager and pretentious and well-meaning, all that idealism without any way of making it a concrete reality.
It was a small role, but a pivotal one. Stark had two impassioned speeches: one between Leo and his father where Leo decides to leave home, and the last scene of the play where he returns, defeated, because "the city was too big for [him]". He was great in both, all righteous indignation in the former; all his ideals shaken, sad and broken in the latter. I was just heartbroken for him at the end.
The rest of the cast were amazing as well, particularly their accents: the play's set in the South, and everyone's Southern accent was pretty good. Ironically, Stark didn't use a Southern accent for the character and spoke in his normal voice, but I think that was a deliberate choice to make Leo seem more "educated" because the character goes to university.
So to sum up: the play was great, Stark is gorgeous and very talented, La Flatmate is the best person ever, and I am very lucky!
* The stage did, however, have the set dressing for A Streetcar Named Desire, which is starting its run tonight, and the spooky gothic set for the latter play (spiral staircase of "Stella! Stella!" fame, and wrought iron panels running above the stage) added a lot to the atmosphere for Fugitive Kind