Rear view mirror #10
In the last week ...
I saw many films and TV shows, including The Apartment, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Champions, and reruns of Buffy. But I watched one thing that stayed in me and is likely to be the show, or one of two shows, that will be the best of the year. I'm speaking about Nanette - Hannah Gadbsy's intense show about why she can no longer perform comedy shows anymore. It was a privilege to watch her soulful, intelligent and ultimately angry performance. It is difficult to examine the depth of her emotion, analysis of comedy and storytelling, and call to arms here, it probably merits a longer post. But I felt exhausted after watching her special, and it may take me some time to recover and critically reflect upon Nanette, especially coming from a privileged man (albeit a gaysian male). What I did want to capture was my initial reaction - awe, bruised, but also deeply connected to the ache in Hannah's heart. An immediate thought might be that this is a 'special' - a one off event that somehow was captured on camera. But I started hearing about this performance over a year ago, as waves and waves of friends and acquantiances described their shell-shocked experience (I'm curious as to how the show might have evolved over time). Make no mistake, while Nanette is special, it s not a one off. I can't imagine how many times Hannah has performed this show, how many times she's analysed and refined her script, how many shows she's done before to get her to this point, and sadly, how many times she's been made to feel the way she has, in order to feel the pain and anger that she expressed her. In this show, Hannah gives us a glimpse into her heart and her mind, and reminds us that art can be provocative, confronting, uniting, and ultimately, completely human.
I saw many films and TV shows, including The Apartment, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Champions, and reruns of Buffy. But I watched one thing that stayed in me and is likely to be the show, or one of two shows, that will be the best of the year. I'm speaking about Nanette - Hannah Gadbsy's intense show about why she can no longer perform comedy shows anymore. It was a privilege to watch her soulful, intelligent and ultimately angry performance. It is difficult to examine the depth of her emotion, analysis of comedy and storytelling, and call to arms here, it probably merits a longer post. But I felt exhausted after watching her special, and it may take me some time to recover and critically reflect upon Nanette, especially coming from a privileged man (albeit a gaysian male). What I did want to capture was my initial reaction - awe, bruised, but also deeply connected to the ache in Hannah's heart. An immediate thought might be that this is a 'special' - a one off event that somehow was captured on camera. But I started hearing about this performance over a year ago, as waves and waves of friends and acquantiances described their shell-shocked experience (I'm curious as to how the show might have evolved over time). Make no mistake, while Nanette is special, it s not a one off. I can't imagine how many times Hannah has performed this show, how many times she's analysed and refined her script, how many shows she's done before to get her to this point, and sadly, how many times she's been made to feel the way she has, in order to feel the pain and anger that she expressed her. In this show, Hannah gives us a glimpse into her heart and her mind, and reminds us that art can be provocative, confronting, uniting, and ultimately, completely human.
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