Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland

Hi everybody, Mary here.

So, here is to the second review of this second #TheatreWeek with the review of one of my favourites ballets, Alice in Wonderland, adapted from the classic tale written by Lewis Carroll. Without any further ado, let's get started, she we ?

Alice In Wonderland : a lesson of growing up and maturing in a fantasy world.

The first point that I would like to talk about is the fantasy itself : when Alice is at a family lunch and bored by the manners of her family, and ends up following a rabbit in a hole leading her to the Wonderland, where she lives adventures that never exist in real life, meets incredible creatures, and is living the dream of leaving her boring life in a rich mansion with her family and her social conventions. In the end, she learns more in this trip than ever in her previous life, and it marks her changement from a little girl to an almost woman.

The second point is about the love story that happens in the show : as Alice falls in love with Jack, the gardener in the beginning and the Jack of Hearts in the Wonderland, she grows up to be more of a woman and less of a child, and has to defend him in front of the Red Queen, the Queen of Hearts, when he's accused of having stolen a tart from her and is condemned to death. As she learns about he politics in the Wonderland and is more aware of the ruling dictatorship, she grows up and becomes more clever than ever in her life.

The third and last point is about the tale itself, written by Lewis Carroll for a seve-year-old child called Alice, and tells her a story when she's very poor and did t't have many opportunities to escrow from her boring life. So, maybe, this ballet and story overall was created to make us, too, escape from reality for a while and discover new horizons ? Anyway, this show was really intense and made with several décors to show the vastness of this really incredible show. It is also a great Christmas show for children and adults alike, apparently.

Overall impression : A really great show about growing up, falling in love, that is different from the original tale but is very suited for anyone, regardless of age. A true treat for the family !

Okay, that's it for today, I hope that you enjoyed this post. and I will see you very soon with another one !

And as usual, our last word : KIDNEYS !

Manon

Manon

Hi everybody, Mary here.

So, little announcement : the #TheatreWeek is going to be kept going for a second week, as I am still quite busy and still have opéras and ballets to cover. So, here is the very first review of this second week with Manon, a ballet that is an adaptation from the novel by Abbé Prévost. So, without any further ado, let's get started, shall we ?

Manon : from the desire of money to the truth of love

The very first point I will raise is about the love story itself : Manon, who was supposed to go to a covent, meets Des Grieux and falls in love with him as much as he is in love with her. Their love is more powerful than the advanced of money (Monsieur GM), or family pressure (Manon's brother, Lescaut). In the end, Manon is ready to sacrifice her dream of money and fame to be in a relationship with Des Grieux, a humble and young student, and even when she gets arrested and sent to jail in Louisiana as a prostitute, she runs away with him and die while running away in the swamps, s  last proof of their undying love for each other.

The second point that I will raise is about Monsieur GM and Lescaut, who are the two societal pressures on Manon and Des Grieux's shoulders. Love is usually tainted with money, and relationships are usually arranged by the families for their own interests. At the beginning, Lescaut wants to sign a contract with a rich gentleman for him to marry his sister, but then, he turns around to Monsieur GM as he is wealthier. Arranged weddings were common, and even the norm, at the time, so it was very usual to see rich men lurking for the prettiest girls out there to marry them.

The third and last point that I will raise is about the social inequalities at that time, causing Lescaut to practically "sell" his sister to the richest man around to ensure her a life without any difficulties or financial problems. Des Grieux, however, didn't have the money to ensure that bright future for her, so he's resigned himself to steal money from Monsieur GM and cheat at a game against him. He ends up being chased away as a thief and Manon is incarcerated as a prostitute for being in love with him but "selling herself for money" to Monsieur GM. His shows the unfair society of those times.

Overall impression : really good story about love, for mature audiences, and shows the inequalities of is world, whether in the past or nowadays !

Okay, that's it for today ! I hope that you enjoyed this post and I will see you very soon with another post !

And as usual, our last word : KIDNEYS !

La Bohème

La Bohème

Hi everybody, Mary here.

So, here is the end to the first #TheatreWeek done last week, that will be kept going on with another... week, basically ? Anyway, here is the very last review of this #TheatreWeek with its very last review, an opéra by Giacomo Puccini called La Bohème. So, without any further ado, let's get started, shall we ?

La Bohème : A true story about love, in a world of poverty and inequalities.

The very first point that I would like to raise is the love story, that is the core of the story, between Mimì and Rodolfo. While Rodolfo is a poet, living with his artist friends, that wants to describe the beauty that is in this world, Mimì sews clothes and lives a minimalist life alone. But when they meet, there is a pure love between them as they get to know each other and fall in love for their unique traits and caracteristics. There is a difference between that love and another live portrayed on this show, Musetta and Marcello's relationship, when Musetta is a woman who "needs no man" and uses them sometimes to get to her goals, but despite all ther quarrels, they end up together because they love each other. But sadly, Mimì dies as she was too poor to get cured, and despite Rodolfo's attempt to save her with his friends, it was too late. This shows the tragedy of this couple doomed to be separated so early, and loved each other SO MUCH, even when Rodolfo pretended not to love her so she can marry someone rich to be cured.

The second point is about the camaradery between Rodolfo and his friends : Marcello the painter, Schaunard the musician and Colline the philosopher. Even if a life as an artist is very hard in Paris, especially for poor people in this era, they try to cheer up between themselves and see each little surprise and stuff like that (when they avoid paying the rent, when they have a fish for dinner (which is A LOT for them), this display of camaradery in this very poor area of Paris shows that even in the darkest of times, friends SUPPORT each other and try to get the best from all and NEVER let one behind. Even Musetta, who's shown as "the b*tchy person", is very worried about Mimì in the end and doesnt hesitate to sell her own earrings to buy her medicines.

The third and last point I will talk about is the social inequalities in Paris at that time, when people that were VERY RICH were next to people that were VERY POOR and it created many riots. When people were left to die in the streets just because they couldn't afford medicine led Mimì not to tell anyone about her illness until the very last moments, and STILL, she died because nobody could care for her early enough. Nowadays, with all the world inequalities, and EVEN in the developed countries, would YOU leave some people die just because they can't afford health care ? THINK ABOUT THIS USA. AND THE UK. I'm waiting.

Okay, that's it for today, I hope that you enjoyed this post and I will see you soon with another one !

And as usual, our last word : KIDNEYS !

Childhood Story #2

Childhood Story #2

Hi everybody, Mary here.

So, for this #DoubleSunday, here is my second Childhood Story, that is a very old one and will be, probably, be very cringy. But yeah... I am a 90's kind and my point is to prove it, hahaha ! (Even if I was born in 1996 lol !)

Those Times When I Had VHS Tapes

(and was OBSESSED with this summer show)

So, yeah, you guessed it : I was born early enough to have VHS tapes. Yes, only 90's kids and people born before this MAGNIFICENT era will remember this (unless you were raised in a family that refused the most modernd technologies, but I don't think that there are that many of them in the world when DVD's and Blue-Rays are way more convenient nowadays).

So, here is my story about tapes. When I was around three or four years old, we had tapes that could only record four hours of programs (after that, it would record on the previous recording. When I see that now, televisions can do that themselves and record thousands of hours of stuff, I can admit that we are pretty lucky), you could NOT turn off the TV, or change the channel (now you can), so your TV was stuck on what you wanted to record, that you had to figure out when the program was beginning and ending to have the ENTIRE show and not miss a bit (usually, shows started AND ended late, now, you just have to press record on your remote and the entire show is recorded without you doing anything else), and you had to program that sh*t the day when you leave (if you did), when now, you can record something weeks in advance, and last but not least, when your recorder menu was a f*cking mess and was practically ILLISIBLE whereas nowadays, you just have to press one button and it's DONE.

Aaaah, the wonders of technology. When I was a kid, ALL of my favourite cartoons were on tape (especially my favourite, Pokémon),  and at the end of them all, I HAD TO rewind the tapes, and since I didn't want to, I would either complain to death until my dad would rewind them for me, or I would run away in my bedroom hoping for him to do it for me. But sometimes, he would make me do that, and it would feel like hell, an eternity, the entire f*cking thing in reverse, so SLOW, whatever. Nostalgia, me says. NONE of my younger siblings (one brother and two sisters) had to do it, so I'm kind of happy for them.

Anyway, that's it for today, I hope that you enjoyed this post, and I will see you very soon with another one !

And as usual, our last word : KIDNEYS !

The Uncanny Fail #2

The Uncanny Fail #2

Hi everybody, Mary here.

So, as the summer has now officially come and arrived in the Northern hemisphere, where I live, I wanted to talk with you about another really important Uncanny Fail that ruins my life and has done so since my earliest childhood : I CAN'T TAN. Like, EVER. So, here is my confession, guys.

I Can't Tan

(Or how having no melanin AT ALL has ruined my entire existence on this planet FOREVER)

So, since I was a child, I've NEVER been able to tan. My skin is so pale that in elementary school, or in middle/high school, I would get comments along the lines of : "But Mary, why are you so pale ?", "Do you never go outside or anything ?", "Do you EVEN go to the beach or do you just stay inside all day ?", "Do you EVEN have friends or are you anti-social as f*ck ?", every year, and I really mean it, every year, without fail, in ALL September reunions at school.

And even when the summer was long over and in the middle of the f*cking winter or in spring, I wold get comments along the lines of : "Wow, she looks like a zombie.", "Isn't she the witch in this area or anything ?", and even grown-ups F*CKING ADULTS would tell me :"Well, isn't she really pale or anything ?", "Are you sure she's not ill or anything ? She looks like an aspirin pill."

Well, here's the news, guys : I CAN'T TAN. EVER.

And you want to know why ? Just because I don't have the F*CKING melanin to do so. You don't know what melanin is ? Well, it's simple : it's the substance in your skin, your pigmentation, that is different according to your geographic origins. In the hottest areas of this globe, people are dark-skinned because they have a lot of melanin. They must have it to have their skin protected. In the meantime, in the coldest areas of this globe, people are fair-skinned because they have less melanin, because they don't need that much protection, and also, to catch up all that vitamin D with all the poor sun that we get (poor me hahaha). This is the laws of GENETIC. SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST.

Is THAT hard to understand that I personnaly DON'T have the melanin to tan ? My mom, for example, has the same problem as me (I think this runs in our blood, as I said, genetics), and the used to tan, A LOT, when she was my age. Now, she has to face the consequences of her tanning with skin cancer and, after she endured EXTREME PAIN during her six months of chemeo-thearpy, she got told by her dermatologist that since my case was WAY WORSE than hers, I would be forbidden to go outside between nine a.m. and five p.m. in the summer because of the sun. And even if I had to go outside, sunscreen would be REQUIRED.

I'm really glad that I know this now, and that all these years of bullying by perfectly tanned children with their bronze skin and perfect glow, I can finally feel confident in my own skin. I mean, after all, in the summer, even if I don't have the perfect tan (or no tan at all, really), I have very cute freckles all over my body (arms, legs, and my very cute face) and I don't envy anyone about this anymore (I'm not saying that I don't envy anyone at all anymore, but that's another story).

(P.S. : YES, I am the witch in this area, BEWARE !)

Okay, that's it for now, I hope that you liked this post, and I will see you very soon with another one !

And as usual, our last word : KIDNEYS !

Hannibal, S3 Ep4

Hannibal, S3 Ep4

Hi everybody, Mary here.

So, here is the review, #InThreeWords, of the fourth episode in the third season of Hannibal ! Without any further ado, let's get started, shall we ?

Aperitivo

So, here are the three words I'd like to use to qualify this episode :

- Death : in this episode, we can see how Alana, Jack, and Will were saved from death and hurried to the hospital to be cured. Alana had a wheelchair for a while (I was a little bit worried that she would keep it forever, but she walks again, so I am reassured for her), and in this episode, we also see Jack taking the decision to finally end his wife's life. Bella is now resting, she isn't suffering anymore from her cancer and it's such a relief for me. There is also a little reflection about death in this episode and what might happen after someone dies, with the funeral, a life that ends and all the love that ended on that day. Rest in peace, Bella. You'll always be beautiful as ever.

- Comebacks : It's shown in this episode that multiple characters that hadn't talked to each other since the end of season two are how reunited, as Will goes back home in the USA to meet Alana, not only in Hannibal's former house but also in his own. We also see the comeback of Margot (SERIOUSLY, when is the kiss/sex scene between Alana and Margot ?) and Mason Verger, who's still alive, after having lost a part if his face that has been surgically redone then and the loss of a majority of his body function, especially the legs as he seems to be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Also, we can see Chilton going to see ALL the survivors of Hannibal's attack (Alana, Will, but also Mason) and talks to them super casually. He also coined the expression "Hannibal the Cannibal" to show his sass, but I don't think that will survive too long. Beware, Chilton ! Hannibal is behind you now !

- Redemption : Last but not least, in this episode we can see that Mason has forgiven Hannibal, and slowly, everybody is doing the same. Alana is a little bit more reluctant to do so and keeps asking questions to Mason for her investigation at the FBI. Jack has lost his job, because ot his failure to catch Hannibal and the fact that his plan was hidden and practically illegal, but that's another story. Now, as Hannibal had forgiven Will in Mizumono, when will they finally meet again and reunite in a super-duper gay parade with rainbows, unicorns and LOADS of glitter ? We'll see, quite soon.

Okay, that's it for now, I hope that you enjoyed this post, and I will see you very soon with another one !

And as usual, our last word : KIDNEYS !

Swan Lake

Swan Lake

Hi everybody, Mary here.

So, here is the fifth post in this special #TheatreWeek series, with the review of a classic ballet from Tchaikovsky, Swan Lake. So, without any further ado, let's get started, shall we ?

Swan Lake : an oath to love, in a world of magic, betrayal and redemption.

The very first point that I will talk about is the story itself, that tells the story of Odette, a young woman cursed by the magician Von Rothbart to be a swan by day and a woman by night. As prince Siegfried doesn't want to marry one of the rich, powerful women presented to him by his mother, he goes hunting some swans with his friend Benno and other people and meets Odette. They fall in love, Odette hopes that the curse will be broken thanks to Siegfried's love, but Von Rothbart sends Odile, his own daughter, disguised as Odette to seduce the prince and make him cheat on Odette, thus keeping Odette as a swan forever. When it happens, Odette is condemned to be a swan forever. She chooses death, followed by Siegfried, and as they are reunited in love and in death, Von Rothbart is killed by the power of their love, and the other swans who had chosen Odile as their queen are freed.

The second point is about the love story between Siegfried and Odile. The prince doesn't really want to rule the country and prefers having fun with his friends, especially his best friend Benno. Odette seems to be an introverted, shy woman with loads of modesty and is quite the opposite of Odile, who dances with extravaganza and is quite extroverted and flirtatious with the Prince. However, the fact that Von Rothbart HAD to send her in to order to make sure that Odile remains a swan forever shows that love IS really powerful in this ballet and finally prevails against the forces of evil. And last but not least, the fact that Odile and Odette are danced, in most cases, by the same ballerina, shows that the prima ballerina HAS to be competent on both sides, even if in most cases, she dances better one character than the other.

The third and last point is about politics. In a tale where marriages were arranged between countries to form alliances, the love between these protagonists is beyond the laws and social conventions. Not only this live is prevented by Von Rothbart, but also by the queen of the country where the story is happening, and maybe, Von Rothbart represents this spirit of conventional order. When Tchaikovsky composed this ballet, homophobia was sill very present in the society and as Tchaikovsky was a homosexual himself, and had a very complicated love life with "cover heterosexual" relationships that all failed, including a wedding.

Okay, that's it for today, I hope that you enjoyed this post and I will see you very soon with another one !

And as usual, our last word : KIDNEYS !