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I live on the ocean, write women's fiction, love to read so much that it's an addiction rather than a hobby (I read an average of a book a day). I live on the wet west coast so it's a good thing that I like to walk in the rain.

Monday, March 12, 2012

Monday review - Chelsea Hotel

The other night I went to see a play at Vancouver's coolest theatre - the Firehall Arts Centre. It's an old firehall that's been converted into a theatre where you can take your glass of wine in (as long as it's in a blue plastic cup) with you and enjoy the wine as you watch some of the most interesting plays in Vancouver. It's also on the outskirts of one of the toughest neighborhoods in the city and somehow that worked especially well for this play.

Over the years I've seen cutting edge theatre in the round, exciting and entertaining musicals, original plays, and plays transformed from great Canadian literature - I've never yet been disappointed and I wasn't disappointed the other night.
Those of you who follow my blog know of my pash for Leonard Cohen - but when I saw the play Chelsea Hotel, I hesitated. I like my Leonard straight with a very few exceptions. Jennifer Warnes and K.D. Lang - that's about it for me. They can cover his work, no one else.

But a friend had two free tickets and I'm glad we went.

I loved the way there were no spoken words, only songs sung to tell a story of a man, a writer, in the Chelsea Hotel. I liked the cast, the way they worked together, the way they convinced me they were in a rundown hotel, living lives on the edge. I liked the set, very simple, the way they used paper to convey the thousands of pieces of paper a writer throws away before there's one he keeps.

It was fun to listen to the way they turned the songs into a coherent story - and the way they made connections between songs I wouldn't have connected. So I'm going to forgive them for not being Leonard, but thank them for praising him.

Kate

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