A Singles Trip to the Theatre

I have been filling out questionnaires – some about health care for Kelvin, and some about my experience with the cardiac unit – this one trying to figure out if the experience of having heart trouble is different for men and women, and if so, how and why. One of the questions asked “Do you have some you can go to events with?” I have been thinking about the question, not about the answer, but about my own life. I started out going to movies, mostly alone when I was a teen-ager. So it doesn’t seem that much “off-normal” to head out to a play or a concert on my own.

Helina Reijn in Obsession

And that is what I did on Thursday night so that I could see Ivo von Hove’s Obsession on Thursday.

The play is a take an old black and white movie but adapted to the stage.

Now one of the drawbacks of going alone to the show alone is that there is no one to talk about it afterward.

There are just a few things I wanted to say, so I will throw them out to the universe at this moment.

In rehearsals for Obsession with Jude Law: 
‘He is physical, strong.’ 
Photograph: Jan Versweyveld

First of all, I thought the movie was at 7:30 pm and arrived at 7:03 pm, thinking I would catch a little rest before it began. But I had the timing wrong and the show was already being introduced with an interview with the director. Bad move to not have a minute’s rest before jumping into such an intense show.

I had read some reviews, but I wasn’t quite expecting the intensity of the long moments when there is no dialogue. For instance, the introduction to Giovanna (Halina Reijn) at the beginning of the show – a long sequence where she is doing personal care on her feet and legs. 

There is another equally long sequence when Gino (Jude Law) puts a sweater on Giovanna. He does it by putting the sweater on his arms inside-out and then transferring it to her arms seamlessly. The transfer takes an eternity, or so it seems. One of those moments when real time turns into slow motion and so many details are captured by my mind.

My only hope of anyone in the family having seen this film is Rebecca, and she is so busy this month, but I can’t even hold a faint hope on that. If anyone has a minute, The Guardian has a nice interview with Halina Reijn which I found interesting after the fact.

I wouldn't have wanted to miss the show.  But having someone to talk about it with afterwards?  That would have been nice.

Arta