drama & prose

[resa]

Last night, I saw Hamlet performed for the first time and it was absolutely breath-taking. The White Horse Theatre group is doing its last performances in Gießen this weekend, so I went to see them with two of my fellow students. I... Wow. It was amazing. Not only did they perform the play with only four actors, but also Hamlet was portrayed more aggressive than anticipated - and it worked so much better than in the original play! He's often interpreted as a very melancholy kind of fellow and not somebody who screams and cries in agony because his uncle killed his father and married his mother. But he did tonight. Like that, it was a lot easier for me to identify with him and that made the whole scenario so much more believable. The Ophelia was amazing, too. In the end, everybody died of course, but the way there was really worth to be watched.

On a different note, I ordered another book by Kazuo Ishiguro. These days, I'm reading The Remains of the Day, but I fear for the day when I'll have finished it. This guy just writes the stories I really need to read right now. He blew my mind with Never Let Me Go about a year ago and damn, The Remains of the Day is amazing, too. I've shyed away from reading it until now, because one of my professors used to keep going on and on about it and blergh. Too much praise for my taste. Furthermore, the narrator is a middle-aged butler from the 1950s - how is his story supposed to catch my attention? But oh boy, I was so wrong. Ishiguro is an amazing story-teller and he writes about the reality of human life in such heart-breakingly beautiful way that I constantly think, "oh yeah, you're so right, man..." while reading his books. For me, he walks the thin line between constructing a believable reality and questioning the reliability of the human mind at the same time perfectly.

If you want to try him, I'll recommend you Never Let Me Go. It's his most recent book, apart from his collection of short stories called Noctures which is also a very enjoyable read. Never Let Me Go will make you gasp, though. Furthermore, if you like comparing books to its movie versions, you'll be able to do that soon with Never Let Me Go as well. The movie's anounced for 2010 with Keira Knightly (!) in one of the major roles.

So, give him a go and tell me about it! :-)