Speaking of the Shakes in Italy, I just sat on a jury for 2 weeks in which in the Italian names and setting (North Beach, San Francisco) promised, minimally a Sicilian Opera, if not a play. & were we, a lively group of jurors disappointed & probably pissed.
A "civil case", it was
Gianfranco Caruso, the plaintiff and once waiter at the Micheleangelo
Restaurant Caffe versus Giovanni Zocca, the balladeer and owner of
Trattoria Volare. Both Columbus Avenue establishments, they stand 45
feet from each other, separated by a flower stand owned by a
non-Italian, but (also) quite passionate Maria Mercedes. What was the
beef? A New Year’s Evening brawl - in 2005, no less - in which Caruso was either or not
injured by Zocca (a thrown chair) in an incident either witnessed or
not by Mercedes. Apparently, we, the jurors, learned later, the
restaurant owners have been warring for years. The Michelangelo had
been down on its luck, and the owner, Salvatore Cortera, did not take kindly to Zocca – while he was singing and courting potential customers on the sidewalk - interrupting his songs to tell folks not to go for "the shitty food' at the Michelangelo). (These are men in their '50's) As they say, this one should never have gone to trial. No
one came out ahead for all the time and money. Judge Wick, however, was
a great judge, moved it along without much expression of dramatic
sorrow. Neither Carusco (if this one could ever sing) or Zocca got a
chance to sing.
As one of a very interesting group of jurors,
I am not complaining. It was my first jury ever. I learned much about
the judicial process, at least in a civil case. I also learned how
difficult it is to settle on ‘a truth’ when accounts of an event emerge
from multiple points of view, each with an agenda. And I did learn alot about the consequences of a tear in a rotator cuff. (Was it caused by 'the chair' or age?) Yet, as often said,
it was neat to be part of the jury deliberations and, with lots of
sometimes heated back and forth, and get to a verdict which seemed
relatively just. Yes, plaintiff, you got hurt, but not in a way that
does make the defendant financially responsible for your livelihood for
the duration of your working life. There is no way to get into a brawl,
throw punches, and expect to get recompense for injuries suffered,
unless the violence set upon you was gratuitous and malicious. Ah, but
we were kind, we gave him a little lost pay, half the medical expenses.
There were other complexities - first generation emigrant
survival ones, the kind of atmospheric/financial cultural cul de sac (North Beach)
which is more of a steep wall for many rather than an opening. Though the marriages are broken, it’s the
children, the ones that make it into college, etc., that get on to another
kind of life and show on the road. There are not that many Italians
left in North Beach.
Then, again, maybe Shakespeare's imagination was constantly turning pig's ears into silk gloves, great language and costumes - and his folks were not much different than these, or us.
(I am still astonished, or not, by how the Republican Party spent 150,000 dollars to put Sarah Palin into Vice President 'drag' to pimp for John McCain!)
Stephen V
Stephen
• • •
--- On Wed, 10/22/08, Alison Croggon <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
From: Alison Croggon <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: The Globe
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Wednesday, October 22, 2008, 2:27 PM
Heh heh. Coincidentally I saw Romeo and Juliet in Lithuanian last
night. Set in a bakery. It was a total pisstake on masculine machismo
and male violence and especially on the culture of vendetta. The
second half was basically a danse macabre, the first grotesquely
funny. Extraordinary theatre. You'll never convince me it's dull!
xA
2008/10/23 Roger Day <[log in to unmask]>:
> sorry to return to the dogfight but I'm bored. I tried to stay away
> and lead a useful life but no, like a druggie wanting another fix ...
>
> I've never denied that you can get "brilliant and exciting"
stuff out
> of s. Then again, chuck a million monkeys at anything and you'll get
> something good out of it.
>
> The East European stuff always sounded like zombie shakespeare. In
> fact what we do sounds like Zombie shakespeare. Zombies.
>
> I always knew you were a decent shelagh, Alison :-)
>
> Roger
>
--
Editor, Masthead: http://www.masthead.net.au
Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Home page: http://www.alisoncroggon.com
