“Real” Drama
It usually takes me a while to get caught up on all the Oscar-nominated films, even more so now that they expanded the field to 10 and I have a newborn at home. I just recently got around to 127 Hours starring James Franco. Now, let me say that, in general, I like Danny Boyle’s work and I like James Franco’s. But this movie was a yawner, for two reasons. One is the fact that it’s a story about a man trapped under a rock, and dramatically, there’s only so much you can do with that. Secondly, Boyle pretty much used the standard bag of tricks in trying to tell a story about a man trapped under a rock (hallucinations, flashbacks, direct-address, etc). I soon got bored waiting for (and therefore fast-forwarded to) the part where Ralston cuts his arm off to escape (which was pretty graphic, even for me).
“But,” I hear the multitudes cry, “it’s so powerful because it’s real”. To which I answer, “So what?” Just because something actually happened, doesn’t mean it’s also automatically dramatically interesting. Dramatic storytelling has an arc and a pace to it that “real life” rarely develops, and even more rarely sustains. Did Aron Ralston undergo an extreme experience? Yes. Is that experience automatically interesting? No. At least, not from a storytelling perspective.
It's an issue I worked through when I wrote my Edgar Allan Poe play, A Midnight Dreary. I started my work with a lot of factual research, but realized soon enough that I didn't want to write a documentary. I was after creating a piece of theatre, which meant taking some liberties with the actual "facts" about Edgar Allan Poe in order to get at the "truth" of him. As a result, events were slightly re-arranged, one character actually became a bit of an amalgam of two different people in Poe's life, etc. I think a student going to see my play instead of reading an actual biography of Poe would probably be looking at a B or B - on a test. As a factual study, my script is barely adequate. As a piece of drama, however, it is (with all due modesty) a great night at the theatre.
Did events in Poe's life unfold exactly the way I dramatized them? Almost definitely not. Is such accuracy important in a dramatic presentation? Not at all, and in fact such accuracy is usually an obstacle to drama.
On Bookshelves Now
I’m very excited to announce that Beyond Midnight has found a new retail home! You may now find it on the shelves of Dragonfly Books on Water Street in downtown Decorah, IA. That makes three retail locations in all, joining the Lanesboro Arts Center in Lanesboro, MN and Pearl Street Books in La Crosse, WI. And even if your favorite independent bookstore doesn’t have Beyond Midnight in stock, you can still support local businesses by going in and asking them to order one for you!
Also exciting news - Beyond Midnight is now available in electronic format for all you Kindle/Nook/iPad readers. Only 99 cents at Amazon.com!
Also exciting news - Beyond Midnight is now available in electronic format for all you Kindle/Nook/iPad readers. Only 99 cents at Amazon.com!
2 Things that Confused Me as a Child
1. Road signs that said "No Passing". Cars passed by that sign all the time!
2. Buttons that said "Kiss me, I'm Polish". I'd heard that cleanliness was next to Godliness, is that what we're talking about here?
Until next time, I remain...
Darkly Yours
