Literature | The Hanslick Girls

May 21, 2018

Sense Of Obligation: Joe Wright’s “Pride And Prejudice” (2005), with Ellen Fuller

It had only been about thirty minutes into the film’s two-hour runtime before Ellen Fuller jumped up, pointing at the screen.

“Where are your sleeves?” she asked, pointing aggressively at the exposed shoulders of Caroline Bingley. “I know the neoclassical style was very in but that doesn’t explain why it looks like you’re wearing your underthings to a ball! No way in hell would a fashion-forward woman like Caroline Bingley wear something so ridiculous. I can see her whole arm for god’s sake! It looks like she came to a ball in her petticoats!” Ellen wailed and buried her head in her hands.

“I mean, you can still see everyone else’s arms through the fabric,” Eleanor noted.

May 7, 2018

Acting Your Age: Takashi Nakamura’s “Pītā Pan No Bōken”

Dania emerged from her room and immediately stared at Eleanor.

“What?”

“You didn’t tell me…” Dania began, walking further into the room, “that there was a Daddy Long Legs anime, too!”

Eleanor exhaled. “Oh, yeah. There is.”

The ads for the show, Watashi No Ashinaga Ojisan, had run at the conclusion of the last few episodes of Pītā Pan No Bōken. This was in lieu of the show’s traditional, “Next Week On…” ending, for fear of spoiling what would happen next.

April 16, 2018

The Space Race: Adjoa Andoh’s Audiobook of Ann Leckie’s “Provenance”

It was when she turned her phone on at intermission that Gwen first saw the text message from Eleanor:

We need to talk about the audiobook you recommended

Gwen was at first excited. It had only been a day or two since she had told Eleanor and Dania to check out the audiobook of Ann Leckie’s Provenance. The book, a spiritual successor to her earlier “Imperial Radch trilogy” set in the same universe, had captured Gwen’s attention after she plowed through the trilogy during the break. Unable to take the time to sit down and focus on the book like she had with the first three, she had bought the audiobook – recorded by British actress Adjoa Andoh.

March 19, 2018

City Blown Away: Theatre Evolve’s “Twelfth Night”

It was Dania who had convinced the others to sit in the front row. Gwen typically preferred at least a row of distance between herself and the action, especially in a blackbox as small as the McKaw. But Dania was insistent.

“They wouldn’t put chairs out if they didn’t want people sitting there,” she said, excitedly bounding to the chairs just by the edge of the stage. “Come on, Gwen.”

Eleanor, impartial, followed Dania, and so Gwen tagged along. It meant she had to crane her neck upwards to see Olivia, when Chelsee Carter held court from her chair on the platform. But for most of the action of the play, the actors remained in the sweet spot at center stage.

Category / Literature