Friday, March 5, 2004

Theatre Geek Report -- the evening show (1 of 3)

Last night, I saw "His Dark Materials."  (Well, Part One anyway.  It's six hours long so they split it over two performances.  Part Two is the show I couldn't get a ticket for.  I solved this problem by buying the script.)

Now, if you live in England, you've probably heard of "His Dark Materials."  Not so much the play (although it is getting VERY good press), but the books on which it is based. 

It's a trilogy of children's books.  Fantasy-type books.  My understanding is that they're very successful here, although nobody in the States has heard of them.

(I recently found out they do have an American publisher.  Now that I know something about them, I can guess why they're tanking in the States.  The story involves religion, which is a pretty touchy place to go with children's books.  I haven't read the script for Part 2 yet, so I'm not sure how it turns out, but it involves a journey to the land of the dead, and I'm pretty certain one of the main characters is trying to kill God.  Or whatever passes for God in these parts.  While I understand the books to ultimately be fairly positive on religion, spirituality, souls and all that business, they are EXTREMELY negative of organized religion, particularly the Church.  I just don't think that sort of thing would play well in the U.S.)

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