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Showing posts with label Black Light Theater. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Black Light Theater. Show all posts

Monday, October 3, 2011

Black Light Theater: Aspects of Alice

I finally got to go to the "Black Light Theater" last night. What is "Black Light Theater"? It's an only-in-Prague thing, which uses black light to camouflage the stagecraft. It also involves some puppetry, mime, etc. A lot of visitors to Prague dismiss "Black Light Theater" as "touristy." I am Mr. Self-Aware and I am fully aware that I am, in fact, a tourist. I actually like to do touristy things when I tourist. I don't like to eat in touristy restaurants. I draw the line there. But doing touristy things? Sign me up.

There are multiple "Black Light Theater" productions around town. I chose "Aspects of Alice" because (a) the source material was supposedly Lewis Carroll's Alice, and (b) the theater was conveniently located just on the other side of the Charles Bridge, in the heart of tourism row.

I would describe the production as being a community theater version of Cirque Du Soleil. The black lighting does an effective job of camouflaging the wires and such when the "Alice" character is floating and spinning -- which she seems to do for much of the production. Oh and there's a little girl-on-girl action which they call "artistic nudity." although it's more girl-on-girl toplessness as the two Alices are wearing fleshtone panties, which was weird because there were a lot of children in the audience. I guess the parents were expecting a little closer connection to Lewis Carroll's Alice, although, I must say, I didn't get the tie to either Lewis Carroll Alice book.

The music was great and, overall, it was an entertaining 80 minutes or so. It's an only-in-Prague thing, so I'm glad I went.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

The Blague from Prague

For the next 36 hours or so, this is officially a "blague." Because I'm in "Prague." Get it? Blague?? OK. OK. Cut me some slack. I'm still jetlagged.

One of the many great things about wandering the streets of Prague is looking at the detail to the buildings. Famous structures, such as the tower at the Old Town (west) side of the Charles Bridge, are filled with decorative statuary:
But even more common and ordinary structures are decorated so:

This is a great city for walking. And given how narrow and winding the streets are, you're continually surprised at what's your next view. Unfortunately, this is not always a good thing as this happened to me repeatedly when I thought I knew where I was, only to be "surprised" that I had walked a couple of blocks in the wrong direction. When you see sights like this large statue behind St. Nicholas Church in the Mala Strana, that's a good thing.

When you're trying to get to a theater performance by starting time, that's a bad thing. Oh well. I will go see the Black Light Theater production of "Aspects of Alice" tomorrow. Two shows daily, so no big deal when I get lost trying to find the theater on one of my days.