Saturday, November 18, 2006

Maskerade: What An Angry Medic Does In His Spare Time

Any medical student will tell you that life in med school is made a heckuva lot more tolerable if you do stuff other than study. Here in Cambridge, however, many students don't believe that, and hence proceed to travel directly from lecture theatre/lab to room/library and back to lecture theatre/lab the next day, having long ago trained their bodies not to require trivialities like food and sleep by simply recycling everything they eat. These students, might I add, are also irritating morons whom I hope will be shot by a disgruntled patient someday. But I digress.

I would like to add that I am most certainly not one of those patients. And the reason I've been updating so infrequently is because I have the honour of being in a play on next week. Terry Pratchett's 'Maskerade', part of the Discworld series of comedy/fantasy novels, is one of the most well-known of his works. Maskerade is a hilarious parody of Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'Phantom of the Opera'.

Maskerade
In both a shameless plug for the play, as well as an excuse for a blog post, I'm providing the blurb for the play, as well as several choice quotes from Terry Pratchett's masterpiece:

Some people think Opera is majestic and that the Opera House is a haven of culture in an otherwise profane and ignorant world. Other think it's just a lot of fat people singing in foreign. But no matter which opinion people have it's usually safe to say that they don't think Opera should generally involve killing people during the rehearsal process. But someone does...

The Opera Ghost is terrorising the Ankh-Morpork Opera House. Seamstresses are being sewn to the wall, the man who works the trapdoor has fallen through it and the Organ has been destroyed (much to the chagrin of the Orangutan who plays it).

Step forward three witches (every theatre has them) Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Perdita. Only one of them can smile, only one of them can think and only one of them can sing. In chords. The hope of the Opera House lies at their feet. But with a homicidal maniac running around they have their work cut out to get the show on. And then there's the problem of the anthropomorphic cat...

Pratchett has been credited with inventing the funniest fantasy series out there. Here are some enticing quotes from Maskerade which provide a glimpse into the man's comedic genius:
"What sort of person," said Salzella patiently, "sits down and writes a maniacal laugh? And all those exclamation marks, you notice? Five? A sure sign of someone who wears his underpants on his head. Opera can do that to a man."

Most people in Lancre, as the saying goes, went to bed with the chickens and got up with the cows. [footnote: Er. That is to say, they went to bed at the same time as the chickens went to bed, and got up at the same time as the cows got up. Loosely worded sayings can really cause misunderstandings.]

"There have been...accidents."

"What kind of accidents?"

"The kind of accidents you prefer to call...accidents."


The pre-luncheon drinks were going quite well, Mr Bucket thought. Everyone was making polite conversation and absolutely no one had been killed up to the present moment.
Maskerade is on next week from Tuesday till Saturday. Advance bookings can be made via e-mail. The play will be staged at the Fitzpatrick Theatre in Queens' College. For my readers not in Cambridge, fear not, for a full report shall be posted soon.

Coming up: The Cambridge Round-up, Week 6! Shudder.

Granny Weatherwax
"Actors," said Granny, witheringly. "As if the world weren't full of enough history without inventing more."

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whaddya mean, free time? Medics don't HAVE free time!

E M K A S said...

good thing that you do something else other then studying... :P

Pratchett News FOR FANS said...

So what are the times of the play

Spirit of 1976 said...

Ahhh, you've got to do something to give yourself a bit of time off from studies.

While doing my nursing degree I've become a leading member of my university's Pagan Society, so allowing me to indulge my interests in archaeology, meditation and the occult.

Why do general nurses think us mental health nurses are a bunch of weirdos? ;)

The Angry Medic said...

Emir-kun: EMIRIIIIIIIIN!

Laila: Maskerade is on at 7.30pm every night during the run. Now you have to come watch me!

Spirit: Heh. Uhm, I have absolutely no idea, nope. Can't think why they'd have any reason to think so. Nope :) I do a bit of meditation myself. The closest I got to the occult was to buy a book on astral planes, but I chickened out before I could contact my 'spirit guide'.

And why can't I leave a comment on your blog without having to register?

Spirit of 1976 said...

And why can't I leave a comment on your blog without having to register?

I've no idea. I haven't disabled anonymous comments. Other people seem able to comment without registering.

Spirit of 1976 said...

Oh, and this morning I was doing a bit of lucid dreaming during my "it's Sunday morning so I'll just lay in bed drifting in and out of sleep" and wound up merging with a gigantic eye that started shreiking "I AM ALL-POWERFUL! I AM ALL-KNOWLEDGABLE!"

This is what happens when you go to bed after meditating on the universe card from Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot the evening before.

Mother Jones RN said...

I'm glad you find free time to play. An overworked medic is not a happy medic.

Break a leg!

MJ

Dan said...

angry medic!!

RAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

performance is tommorrow right? she already went 'break a leg' so....well, break the other leg too :) have fun.

Bal said...

Whoa, wish I was there to see it. Make sure that report post comes up!

Dan said...

i can help you break legs using my sledgehammer.

howling said...

*howling is really curious to see The Angry Medic in tights...*

Then I'd find out what his religion is!!!

BTW. I did a really blatant endorsement of your site in my latest blog post... nicked your cute pic of nursie puppy as well.

The Angry Medic said...

Spirit: Right, lemme give another go at commenting. If you see a weird comment from a possible mental patient, well that's just me.

And, uhm, might I suggest you limit your meditation before sleep to nice warm glasses of milk? :)

Momma Jones: why thank you. Sometimes I feel like there's hope yet for the future of my mental state...

Zuyin: I, m'dear, have texted you three times. Hah! Who's showering heavenly-megawatt-quality-
care now? ;)

Dan: please, bring your sledgehammer.

Howling: Oh. Gawd. Did you HAVE to make that tights reference?

Though I rather think you wouldn't like it if I wore tights. See the scene I mention in my latest blog post above :P

And I'm glad that horribly-Photoshopped pic is doing someone else some good. Thanks for the publicity! Just wait til I plug your blog, you wild thing you :P