Last night we went to see a very good production of Notes from Underground at the Arcola theatre. Its currently only running till this week but there should be a repeat performance in January for another couple weeks. The play was adapted by the first female director of the RSC in the 70s, she died and this is the first time the plays been put on since then. The set was great, a totally decrepit bed sawn in half and FILTHY along with a FILTHY little man. The play focuses on the man's dealings with the prostitute, Liza, from the story. Its not quite a one man show, though he does have the majority of the dialogue, but the prostitute and the Butler were both fantastic. The one thing that it did seem to miss was the sense of history and Russian-ness that the story had. The reference to the man's school friends and their drunken dinner was totally cut. Because of the minimalist costume there was nothing, besides the repeated reference to duelling, and the sublime and the beautiful that put it in its historical setting. But despite that it was a great adaptation, very much in the same vein as the story.
I finished the story only a couple hours before seeing the play so it was very fresh in my mind. I found the ranting of the first chapter a bit off putting at first but some of what was said was very beautiful and some quite absurd so I kept reading. It was interesting, the more I read the more the main character seemed despicable. Though it was also fairly easy to identify with the feelings of alienation he had. In many ways he seemed like the ultimate autistic man, misreading social cues, paranoid, and unable to communicate. I think perhaps because of that he seemed at times far too lucid and introspective to his own feelings and motives. These were times when it felt more like the author than the character speaking. But it was also interesting to read something so different to what I'd normally read.
