1. As I remember, I first saw Tom Courtenay act in a movie in Dr. Zhivago, but I was too young to appreciate his work. It wasn't until I saw him play opposite Albert Finney in one of my favorite movies of all time, The Dresser (1983), that Tom Courtenay's work made its indelible impression on me. I returned to The Dresser repeatedly, not only because it's about a theater troupe performing Shakespeare, but to watch Tom Courtenay again and again exert every ounce of energy and emotion into playing the role of Norman, the assistant, or dresser, of a seasoned Shakespeare actor going mad during the Second World War, played shatteringly by Albert Finney.
A couple of years later, I assigned the novella The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner by Alan Sillitoe in the section of Survey of British Literature I taught at the U of Oregon and we watched the movie version, released in 1962. Tom Courtenay brings alive a searing portrayal of Smith, a working class youth guilty of a petty crime who, in his time of detention, finds solace in running long distances.
Until today, I had never seen any other movie featuring young Tom Courtenay. As part of its British New Wave collection, the Criterion Channel has made Billy Liar (1963) available for viewing.
Once again, Tom Courtenay entranced me. He plays a lackluster young man, Billy Fisher, unmoored, living at home, deeply dissatisfied with his work in a funeral parlor and disillusioned with his lot in life. He tries to animate his existence through his imagination, by picturing himself the ruler of his own country. His habit of living in a fantasy world intersects with his life in the world he actually lives in.
Billy lies.
He lies about his family, he lies to women in his life, he lies about being hired to work in London, he lies to his employer, his fiancee(s), and on and on.
Billy Liar is a painful exploration of the tensions in Billy's family and of the disaffection that inspires Billy Fisher to transport himself into other worlds and to compulsively lie to everyone he encounters. At the same time, it's fun to fly away with Billy, to join him in his fantasies.
Ultimately, however, he must decide how to face the pressing and difficult realities of his unimagined life, of the real world, making this a most poignant movie.
2. Debbie, Patrick, Megan, and I blasted up to the Sixth Street Theater and Melodrama to watch the musical production, Guys on Ice, a fun tale about two Wisconsin ice fishermen sitting in their shanty waiting for a cable television crew to show up and interview them for a local fish and game program.
It's almost as if Waiting for Godot were set on a frigid Wisconsin lake. Like Waiting for Godot, the two fishermen, Marv and Lloyd must figure out how to pass this waiting time. They tell stories, drink beer, sing about their lives in Wisconsin, crow about the virtues of wearing a snowmobile suit, reflect on their love lives, and deal with their irritating friend, Ernie the Moocher, who pops into the shanty on a couple of occasions.
My brother-in-law, Paul, played Marv beautifully and his two acting mates also perfectly brought their characters to life.
I won't spoil how the story ends.
I'll just say that these three actors and their piano accompanist, Joy Persoon, made a sell out crowd on this Sunday afternoon very happy.
3. After the play, the four of us joined Christy, Tracy, Carol, Paul and Molly for a post-matinee family dinner.
Carol made a pot of chili.
I brought some toppings.
Molly brought Frito scoopers.
Christy made cinnamon monkey bread.
She also made a batch of awesome silo cookies.
Meagan and Patrick contributed wine.
Pre-dinner and dinner talk was vibrant.
Paul talked about his experience as an actor in Guys on Ice.
At the dinner table, we talked a lot about chili -- Skyline Chili and Sunnyside Elementary School chili.
We talked about imaginary families living in our houses.
After dinner, we had a rousing discussion of what we might do between Dec. 21 and 27 when Debbie has a birthday, Debbie and I have a wedding anniversary, Jesus was born, we have a Christmas dinner of Canadian food to plan, and I have a birthday.
I think we are getting pretty close to deciding what we will and won't do and who will do what when.
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