michcia's notes

the question of the cow persists

in which i rant about theatre and education

i love that car

It's no secret that I really really liked the movie Drive My Car directed by Ryūsuke Hamaguchi. I watched it six times and the last time I did was over a year ago at this point, so I should really just sit down and watch it again. Maybe I'll stop being so depressed about work.

So, seven times now (I pulled out my Blu-Ray and I'm watching as I'm writing this).

The story of Drive My Car is built around a theatrical production of Uncle Vanya, a play by Anton Chekhov (the Chekhov's gun one, yes). The protagonist at one point says that it is a text that chews you out and exposes your soul (far from exact quote). And it delivers on that promise, exploring how well one may understand another person, how much sexism around car driving is too much, how much thinking with your dick rather than your brain is too much.

There are many things to love about the movie: the concept of theatre plays where each actor speaks their mother tongue and its consequences, the soothing soundtrack which I now have on vinyl, and the rest of the soundscape that draws me into a meditative focus. Most of my family finds the 3 hour runtime sleep-inducing, but somehow not me.

If you'll believe my Letterboxd, it was my first time going to a cinema for something less than a blockbuster. While I don't remember it so vividly anymore, I can assume I was a silly little weeaboo, finding that a Japanese movie has taken an international category Academy Award, and deciding to see it based on just that information. I like to think that it more properly sparked my interest in cinema as a whole, and in cinema-going.

That would be the main outcome for me. But a smaller one would be a little spark of interest in theatre. I found the performance in Drive My Car quite moving and inspiring. I went to rewatch it in cinema a second time, a few weeks later, and right before that, I read the text of Vanya in Polish translation, to see if I was missing something important. But beyond that, for 3 years, it hasn't lead to anything else. Not even a theatre-going gay flatmate managed to move me.

why don't we read the book again

Fast forward to early this year, I was browsing a local cinema's programme, and that's how I found out about the National Theatre Live series of recorded performances from Bri'ish theatrical productions. And what else, but Vanya! The movie gave me a very cathartic, purifying view of the play. I felt I needed some of that again. Going to a proper theatre felt like a big deal, but with this I could have a try, see if I vibe, without worrying too much.

But maybe Vanya wasn't the best first choice. For one, it is still a quite heavy play, even if cathartic of its design. But maybe this version specifically wasn't a good starter for a newbie: Andrew Scott is a solid actor, and it was Vanya alright. But even knowing the text, I was worn out from the cognitive load of interpreting his performance, as he was playing all characters at the same time. A more conventional script would've been a better choice.

I was much luckier with my second pick. Thankfully, the play was preceded by a bunch of trailers for other NT Live plays. One of them was The Motive and the Cue, a play set in 1960s Britain, telling the story of a certain theatrical production of Hamlet. It starred Mark Gatiss, it sounded fun from the trailer bits. Funnily, similarly to Drive My Car, it was 3 hours long, centred around theatre, and even got some awards. It seemed like a neat chance to try a modern play that was written to be modern. And quite importantly, unlike most plays I see being advertised by a nearby Polish theatre, it wasn't a comedy about marital issues of middle aged couples.

So I went to see it and it was lovely! I really enjoyed the acting, deepened my understanding of how much I'm a sucker for accents, and it's a good, engaging story. Just like Drive My Car, it builds on the deep core of the play inside, and wraps it beautifully in the context of people playing it. It has some solid fun quotes like the title of this post --- I'm not explaining it lol maybe go watch it if you can. It's not actually 3 hours, it has a ~15 minute intermission in the middle including a ~5 minute video of director and writer explaining the concept. And that video was nice, but if I can have a little complaint, it didn't feel like we needed it? The story speaks for itself quite well.

A week later, I got really lucky: checking the schedule of another cinema I like, I found another screening from the NT Live series, of a version of Hamlet itself, produced in 2015 starring Benedict Cumberbatch.

Now, there's a lot to be said about that guy playing Hamlet at that point in his career, at the peak of BBC Sherlock fame. The production seems to lean heavily into that image, pulling all sorts of cinematic tricks, slowing perception of time except for Sherl---sorry, Hamlet--- as though he's in a mind palace, and an aesthetic of fairly modern times, flashing lights. The long repressed Sherlock girlie in me loved that, honestly.

But the most important takeaway from this was that, finally, I felt like I understood what Hamlet was about. Where previously I supposedly touched upon Shakespeare's works in Polish classes, finally I felt like I had a decently complete image of what the story was about. It was no longer just a dry "to be or not to be" to be read, maybe recited from memory, if the teacher feels like it.

we're no robots

Now, I might not remember if I actually had anything to do with Hamlet in high school --- the revised curriculum only includes it in the extended exam prep for Polish, while the mandatory basic level class only covers Macbeth. But I can think back to what I recall as my last visit to a theatre.

In middle/junior high (maybe the naming doesn't matter, it doesn't exist anymore) school, my class was taken on a trip to Warsaw, including watching a performance of Romeo and Juliet at a theatre well known for its modernity -- most especially the presence of rain falling on the front rows in every play. They were also playing up the sex appeal of the titular relationship, even if overall it was still vaguely PG-13. Both me and my teacher mom vividly remember my classmate saying the production was "fucking awesome" during the intermission.

Now, Romeo and Juliet was definitely part of our curriculum back then, we were taken to see it specifically to make us care. But what I don't quite understand was, why was this a one-off thing, when we had so many more plays that we had to read dry text of without really getting what it's about?

I feel like there's so much to gain from making children care about what you're teaching. While of course, since I grew up in a bit of a rural place, I cannot expect miracles, but now we live in the beautiful times where you can find so many archival recordings (like the state television theatre, maybe) online.

And if you could get the children excited about watching, why not get them into performing theatre as well? Now this is a part I dread a bit more. In my memory, the only purpose of playing and performing something at school was to commemorate the dead, praise the history, instill the values. Across my entire education, I'm struggling to remember any time when a school assembly had a theatrical/musical performance, for any reason other than a historical occasion or a Nativity play for Christmas. And it feels like a bit of a wasted potential.

I'm seeing a bit of movement towards a tiny improvement, I guess. Last year, to my best knowledge, my former Polish teacher directed a play at a local culture centre thing place, an actual play with story and characters, it seems? It's still primarily to instill "police state was bad communism was bad", if I get it right, and has quite the same vibes of a school assembly.

But perhaps this is still a step in the right direction, towards stories and plot lines, and not just dry, nameless, vague history. Let's hope it can be something that actually speaks to the kids at some point.

the important thing is to work

I jinxed this text by calling it a rant in the preface and giving myself the deadline of finishing it before the credits roll. But some small takeaways can still be takeawayed: