Sunday, July 06, 2003

Sax and Violins

Violence warnings

May not be as scary the title implies - for example...

Two of the warnings are attached to the classics - Beowulf and Medea

One is attached to a memoir of the Vietnam War

One is related to a zombie show

One has a description which includes "bear eats child" (hopefully not from a family in the audience, but...)

Nothing unexpected there.

A couple are attached to riffs on the Bible (a book known to have a gory passage or two, regardless of the testament) - one show's comedic, the other more serious - and depending on how seriously you take the Bible, and how liberal your sense of humor is - despite or because of your religious leanings - they could be delightful or offensive for reasons completely unrelated to violence.

One warning's tacked on to the Strip Club show that already has a nudity warning - but it's a one woman show, so unless she beats herself up...

One's appended to a production of sketch comedy about love. (Who's been reading my diary?)

One's attached to Ministry of Cultural Warfare's "Industrials" - why, I have no idea - but I trust them.

One's attached to Theatre Unbound's "The Love Talker" - but again, I trust them.

Steel your stomach and take a chance. After all, they can't say they didn't warn us. And let's face it, we see worse on the nightly news to absolutely no purpose but to get us to buy another lock for the door and fear our neighbor. At least, one hopes, these violent interludes have a purpose.

When all else fails, just keep telling yourself, "It's only a play."

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