actors part iii, or "cousin bette".

I have no idea how I came upon this. I think I received a flyer in the mail. The theater company sounded interesting, and Ellie and I were looking for something to do last weekend. I wasn't familiar with the story, and I never read Balzac. He was one of those authors I feel like I should have ready by now--but he slipped through the cracks.

But I have to tell you, Cousin Bette, as adapted by playwright Jeffrey Hatcher and presented by the Antaeus Theater Company is mmm mmm good. A delicious, devious revenge drama, it clocks in at around three hours, with two intermissions, but I just didn't want it to end.

I have to say--theater can be tough. Like I can't believe I just wrote that sitting in a chair for three hours was awesome. When I first moved to L.A., theater here seemed to be nothing more than one-man/woman shows about being an out-of-work actor, the hell of dating in Hell-A or being and out-of-work-actor trying to date in L.A. It was all dreadfully meta, something actors only did when the tv spots and commercial work dried up. And why would anyone even bother with theater here? Where's the glitz, the glam, the red carpets? And aside from the Mark Taper and the Geffen Playhouse, there was just that dingy stretch of theaters along Santa Monica in Hollywood.

But in the past couple of years, some of my most memorable arts experiences have been theater outings, and I've stumbled upon some great houses, most notably the Fountain Theatre tucked behind the Scientology Center on Sunset, A Noise Within in Glendale and now the Antaeus in the NoHo Arts District.

Usually when I watch a play, my only thought is "how the hell do these people memorize 2-3 hours of lines?" That alone just blows my f***ing mind, but they do so much more. The acting in Cousin Bette, while there a little schlock here and there, was really fantastic, and I just thought, "wow, these people are just doing their art for art." Very little money, very little recognition--just art. I love that. And I loved Cousin Bette. I think you will, too.