Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Chekhov's Gun

...is nicely explained here.
The essence is this fine quotation from that glorious writer:
"One must not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it."
Following up on the previous post, as my companions and I sat awaiting the start of the play, we all made some observations on what was apparent on the stage, which was set up as a motel room somewhere - a suitcase under the bed, an odd rectangle of somewhat ghostly lighter colour on one wall, and a rocker chair front right. They pointed to the first two things, observing that the rectangle might be some sort of picture hanging on the wall, and I seem to recall commenting that the rocking chair did not seem to fit into a motel room.
As it turned out, the rocking chair was indeed not in the motel room, the rectangle did play the role of a picture, and the suitcase kept getting used.
For all that astuteness, I still don't really know whether the guy in the rocking chair was real (as real as a fictional character can get), or some strange embodiment of the entanglement of the lead characters, with the picture being the expression of the need for that one great love.
Still the play had Megan Follows.

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