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poetry, lingustics, culture. 🇵🇸 فلسطين حره 27 TRANSLATIONS AND COUNTING

[anthro-apology]

Anne Carson (2009)

Arthur S. Way (1898)

George Theodoridis (2010)

Ian C. Johnston (2010)

E.P. Coleridge (1910)

Theodore Alois Buckley (1892)

John Peck, Frank Nisetich (1995)

R. Potter (1906)

M. L. West (1987)

William Arrowsmith (1958)

Philip Vellacott (1972)

Michael Wodhull (1782)

Kenneth McLeish (1997)

David Kovacs (2002)

Andrew Wilson (1993)

Euripides - Original (408 BCE)

[anthro-apology]

dream lizzie cast with alexa lopez as lizzie, rachel jones as alice, ciara renée as emma (but emmy brett for a CLOSE second!) and emily sofia wronski as bridget. and of course directed by victoria bussert <3

[unlikelylovers]

In the house of Borden there’s a lock on every door. In every room a prisoner of a long, silent war. Let us take you to an August back 1892 When all hell broke loose in the house of Borden…

[anthro-apology]

ciara renée and rachel jones directed by victoria bussert is a fucking DREAM

[juiceboxlane-deactivated2021122]

in the house of borden, there's a lock on every door. in every room a prisoner of a long, silent war. let us take you to an august back in 1892, when all hell broke lose in the house of borden.

@musicalweek day 1: favorite stage production — LIZZIE

[id: a still image and 6 gifs. the still image is of the LIZZIE: The Musical logo. the 6 gifs are of various songs from the Baldwin-Wallace University production of LIZZIE. the first is from 'Shattercane & Velvet Grass', the second from 'Will You Lie?', the third from 'The Fall of the House of Borden', the fourth from 'Sweet Little Sister', the fifth from 'Why Are All These Heads off?', and the sixth from 'Burn the Old Thing Up'/end id]

[anthro-apology]

veronica otim my beloved!! one of the most powerful performances of 'sweet little sister' EVER

[musicalgifs]

[anthro-apology]

i confess that victoria bussert's version of lizzie is my fav

[thegirl20]

@imakequestionablechoices replied to your post “Emma Louise Hoey as Lizzie Borden and Maiya...”:

I love this musical! Do they always kiss in most productions?

​It's in the script 😊

[anthro-apology]

sometimes they kiss and sometimes they fully fuck on stage

[lesmiserabelles]

sydney shepherd and kim onah as lizzie borden and alice russell | lizzie, theaterworks hartford

[anthro-apology]

completely normal about this,,,,, for sure

[musicalgifs]

Visit Original Link

sweet little sister from saturday (9/11/24)! please don't post on other social media.

[anthro-apology]

the runs omg

[lavender-gayz]

love how lizzie the musical is like: here's a devastating song about familial abuse. here's some lesbian yearning. here's a really catchy song about household poisons. here's lesbian seduction part 1, ft. pears. oh no, these pigeons are dead. AXE FALL RIVER RUNS RED. here's an understandable series of questions when you realise mr borden and his wife have been murdered. time for lesbian seduction part 2, ft. an attempt to suborn perjury. let's have a really soothing lullaby about watchmen waiting for the morning. 13 days in court, starring: a sister who remembers neither the question nor the answer but was definitely in fairhaven in any case; a maid who frankly gives some pretty worrying testimony; your ex(?) neighbour(?) undefined situationship person who won't lie about having seen you burn that dress. we'll somehow work 'yankee clytemnestra' in there and it will be perfect. lizzie is found NOT GUILTY.

every song is top-tier. i've only described like 60% of them. ALSO, it's an all-female cast!

[anthro-apology]

i confess i giggle every time i get to the 'yankee clytemnestra'

[lavender-gayz]

why is it always 'what the fuck now lizzie?' and 'why didn't you destroy the dress lizzie?' how about 'did you have fun with the axe lizzie? it looked like you had fun'

[lavender-gayz]

why is it always 'what the fuck now lizzie?' and 'why didn't you destroy the dress lizzie?' how about 'did you have fun with the axe lizzie? it looked like you had fun'

[lavender-gayz]

love how lizzie the musical is like: here's a devastating song about familial abuse. here's some lesbian yearning. here's a really catchy song about household poisons. here's lesbian seduction part 1, ft. pears. oh no, these pigeons are dead. AXE FALL RIVER RUNS RED. here's an understandable series of questions when you realise mr borden and his wife have been murdered. time for lesbian seduction part 2, ft. an attempt to suborn perjury. let's have a really soothing lullaby about watchmen waiting for the morning. 13 days in court, starring: a sister who remembers neither the question nor the answer but was definitely in fairhaven in any case; a maid who frankly gives some pretty worrying testimony; your ex(?) neighbour(?) undefined situationship person who won't lie about having seen you burn that dress. we'll somehow work 'yankee clytemnestra' in there and it will be perfect. lizzie is found NOT GUILTY.

every song is top-tier. i've only described like 60% of them. ALSO, it's an all-female cast!

[lavender-gayz]

Lizzie the musical at Southwark Playhouse Elephant - some little moments that I loved, part 1/?

Background: This production originated at Hope Mill Theatre in Manchester. It features Lauren Drew as Lizzie; Maiya Quansah-Breed as her neighbour, Alice; Shekinah McFarlane as Lizzie’s sister, Emma; and Mairi Barclay as the Bordens’ housekeeper, Bridget. Esteemed tumblr user thegirl20 has many lovely photosets and gifsets of the cast, including this high-definition one where you can see the faces of everyone in the main cast (and also the set!)

I was lucky enough to catch this show with the main cast in London at the Southwark Playhouse Elephant a couple of times (plus once with Emma Louise Hoey as Lizzie and Ayesha Patel as Bridget) when they went on a mini tour in Nov/Dec 2023 :)

1. The House of Borden:

Bridget ladles out impressively gloopy gruel while singing about all-purpose mutton. Both Lizzie and Emma give it a wide berth (and say no to breakfast for the rest of the show).

Emma goes, 'we’ve no personal objection BUT SHE CAN'T HAVE WHAT'S OURS' – an increasingly-concerned Lizzie rushes over and shakes her head and Emma is temporarily mollified. Fair is fair in the House of Bordennnnn!

The way their voices go up in the last ‘let us take you to an August back in 1892’ – MUAH.

2. This Is Not Love:

Lauren Drew performs the majority of this song while sitting uncomfortably in an ornate armchair where something horrifying routinely happens. It’s very effective.

She really conveys the despair and the agony Lizzie feels – there's one bit in the final verse where she gasps out, 'this is not love' and she sounds so incredibly broken.

(“I want…to see arms outstretched to hold me / wanting nothing in return / but only for me to feel safe and secure”

She’s literally next door, Lizzie.)

And at the end she tears herself out of the chair with the line ‘I don’t know what it is, but I want out of it.’

3. ‘I love you too, Father.’

4. Gotta Get out of Here:

Lizzie absently trails her hand along Alice's arms and shoulders in this one bit at the start - Alice never stood a chance tbh.

Maybe I'll do a separate Alice x Lizzie highlights thing.

LOVE the energy in this song and how Lizzie almost seems possessed when she sings about something hanging over her and how she physically throws her body around.

Alice's higher 'stay here longer' when she joins in on the chorus is what angels dream of.

5. If You Knew:

Let's have MAXIMUM YEARNING

To set the scene: we’ve just come out of ‘Gotta Get out of Here’, where Lizzie expresses her need to get out of here and is hindered by Bridget, Emma and Alice (with some very cool dance breaks). Lizzie finally breaks free and Alice chases after her but loses her. We’re now in Alice’s bedroom where she’s thinking about Lizzie.

Lizzie is just off to the side (presumably in her own home or in her yard) looking sad and letting down her hair.

Alice is singing to herself about how much she loves Lizzie and wondering how Lizzie would react if she knew about this.

(She thinks a secret’s just a lie! This may or may not come back to bite us!)

Her voice just SOARS when she sings about dreaming about having Lizzie in her arms.

I like that this song expresses the pretty relatable concern of ‘oh no if you knew I had a big gay crush on you would you still let me touch you and comfort you’ but it doesn’t come with a side of ‘oh no it’s so wrong and gross for me to have feelings for another woman’. Thanks, Steven Cheslik-DeMeyer and Tim Maner!

And good news for Alice: YES Lizzie will let you hold her close when she knows about your secret gay feelings AND she will make out with you and hold you close too! You will get to be happy for approximately seven seconds before Bad News Bridget interrupts.

6. Soul of the White Bird:

'the violence of freedom'

Emma joins in with Lizzie from the side at ‘oh if I had wings like a dove’ - the harmonies!!

Bridget knits and goes la la la in counterpoint while Lizzie slowly falls apart.

7. ‘Lizzie, don’t!!’

8. Maybe Someday:

The FIRST iteration of this song and it’s Alice singing to Lizzie about how maybe someday her heart will be open. They may not get a conventional happy ending together but by god their story is integral to this show.

It is so sweet and then they end up cuddling and falling asleep!

I was going to save this for the Alice x Lizzie highlights, but this was too cute to leave out so I guess I'll just include it twice: Lizzie is the big spoon!!!

9. ‘Her bed is freshly made, as if she hadn’t slept in it at all!’ – Bridget, relishing her role as a gossipmonger-in-chief

10. Who hasn't had to kick a girl out in the morning because your sister needs to vent about developments in your father's will and is threatening to go to Fairhaven? Sisters, amirite?

11. ‘Emma, wait! What if Mrs Borden…dies first?’

12. Sweet Little Sister:

It has been said before and it bears saying again: vocals for DAYS.

The little lyric change to “I look into your cold dark eyes” to suit Lauren’s eye colour!

Bridget and Alice pop up with mic stands to sing along.

And then Emma fucks off to Fairhaven even though her sweet little sister was begging her to stay.

13. Mairi's delivery of 'oh Miss Emma you've forgotten your book! And she asked me to pack it S P E C I A L.' is so deeply funny.

14. Also hilarious: the very un-suspicious way Bridget slides the book of household poisons over to Lizzie.

15. ‘…time for Mrs Borden’s tea!’ I love Bridget.

This feels like a good time to take a break!

[lavender-gayz]

Lizzie the musical at Southwark Playhouse Elephant - some little moments that I love, part 2/?

Previously: [Part 1]

We left off with Bridget announcing that it was time for Mrs Borden’s tea :)

Shattercane and Velvetgrass:

THIS IS MY JAM

Bridget brings in a tray with a teapot and associated accoutrements and starts singing about making tea while Lizzie reads aloud from a book on household poisons and forms a bright idea

Their voices are so gorgeous together

The last(?) time they do the chorus, Lizzie brings down the teapot dramatically and it hits the beat just right and it’s super satisfying

Bridget gives it her ALL in the last verse. FIRE BURN and TOIL.

A fun thing I notice on the final night in London sitting in the right-hand balcony: while Bridget and Lizzie perform this educational masterpiece about poisons and teas, a shadowy figure stands in the aisle separating the middle section of the audience from the left section and leaves after a little bit. It’s Emma! There is no spotlight on her so I only realise it is her because she lets in a little light when she opens the door to enter and leave the theatre.

(Tbh my initial interpretation was that Bridget was cheerfully planting the idea of poisoning the Bordens in Lizzie’s head of her own volition, but I’m not mad about this revelation)

2. ‘To...clean a stain?’

Lizzie x Lying is a close second to Lizzie x Alice for me.

Quick break for me to gush about Lauren Drew’s performance as Lizzie because this feels as good a time as any! I just love the physical ways in which she conveys how deeply awkward Lizzie is – her posture is terrible and she blinks a lot when she’s nervous. It’s in her manner of speech as well and I just find it so compelling. At the same time, we obviously get these powerhouse vocals when she’s singing about her feelings – the contrast is fascinating.

3. Alice makes good on the invitation from this morning and comes over to hang out! Lizzie says she’s sorry but she must go to Benson’s Pharmacy.

‘Why?’ – Alice sounds so unguardedly baffled and offended and I personally find this hilarious.

4. ‘Are you well?’ is Alice’s first reaction to Lizzie freaking out about Alice calling Mrs Borden Lizzie’s mother

She cares about her so much, I wail

5. Lizzie in Kronk mode is one of my favourite things. The milk, the milk that comes in a can, the milk that leaves behind an empty can. The canned milk.

6. That awkward moment when the girl next door – in a kindhearted attempt to ease your mind! because she loves you! – casually pokes holes in your plot to poison your stepmother and you have to pivot and talk about your struggles with sleeping at night. 

7. Will You Stay:

So! Much! Anticipation!

How does one sing these suggestive lyrics about gathering ripening pears in skirts and biting through skin to the sweet flesh within while smiling (and sounding) like an angel? How?!

Alice sings, ‘let me bring back your smile’ and it does actually bring a tiny smile to Lizzie’s face :)

Lizzie says she has to go and things escalate rapidly

IT’S JEALOUS PEAR TIME

Maiya’s delivery of ‘she’s always eaten ingreathaste’!!!

And also the vocal acrobatics in ‘will you bite through the skiiiiiiiiiiiin’

Alice literally guides Lizzie’s hands down her neck and her torso and the whole time I panic while gay.

(NOT to be mistaken for the strategy of legal defence where a straight person argues that they found a purported same-sex advance so horrifying that they reflexively reacted violently!)

Alice promises to keep Lizzie safe while she sleeps. She has this cute smile when she ducks her head and says she’ll keep one eye open half the time

8. AND THEN THEY ARE CONSUMED WITH PASSION AND KISS FOR SEVERAL SECONDS AND THEN BREAK APART AND KISS AGAIN

I have Notes from watching this from multiple angles

Hands-down the funniest view was when I was in the front row in the central block but at the last seat from the right and so could not see the actual kissing and just admired the braids in Alice’s hair the entire time

I have seen some clips from other productions on Youtube where it kind of looks like Alice is pushing Lizzie into the kiss? Happy to report that this is not the case here! They both lean in. Maybe Alice leans in a tiny bit more / first but Lizzie is definitely enthusiastic and wraps her arms around Alice. HA.

9. Alas, Bridget comes in bearing bad news and a bagful of dead pigeons.

10. Why Are All These Heads Off:

Somehow, another banger!

‘Wait, wait, wait! Everything is fine Lizzie, we will find a better way’ – there is audible laughter from the audience at this on the last night and, well, I get it.  

A fleeting moment of peace as Alice presses her forehead to Lizzie’s

A tug-of-war between Alice and Bridget before Lizzie strides forward in the middle and makes her choice

‘I'm standing looking forward in the dark / A feeling brushes past me / And I know the wind has changed’ – it’s like Lizzie's carving these words into stone. CHILLS.

11. Mercury Rising: the lyrics are so archaic and poetic. More chills.   

12. Somebody Will Do Something:

!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bridget whips out her microphone to announce that Mrs Borden is ‘ALL…BY…HERSELF’

‘AXE FALL RIVER RUNS RED’ is amazing to witness up close (the upshot of missing the kiss!)

‘My eyes they never saw it / But my hands they found the axe’ – BRIDGET is the one to hand Lizzie the axe – I don’t know if this is how they do it in all productions, but I love how integral she is to everything here.

There’s also something about the practised way in which Bridget shifts her grip on the axe just a little bit when giving it to Lizzie that has stuck with me!

Lizzie darts offstage to look for her stepmother

(A quick note on the staging: there’s a doorway with sliding…doors at the centre of the stage. For this scene, the doors are open and there are PVC strip curtains hanging from the doorway. You can see this in the eighth picture in thegirl20’s lovely collection of production photos here: [link])

Lizzie attacks Mrs Borden with her axe behind the PVC strip curtains while the 40 whacks rhyme is projected onto the wall

Another fun thing I notice while sitting upstairs: Shekinah and Maiya pop up in the balcony and sing about being afraid somebody will do something and that somebody will dieeeeeee! Such rockstars!

‘OOH Miss Lizzie you startled me’ is Bridget’s v chill response to Lizzie when she emerges from the murder curtains with blood all over her. Bridget’s reactions and harmonies are always top-notch.

Lizzie sounds so exhausted and on the edge when she says she might go out too. I know she's just violently killed her stepmother, but I do also want someone to wrap her in a blanket and give her some cookies (maybe no coffee).

Anyway, one final push! ‘HE’LL WISH HE’D HAD THAT SON,’ Lizzie declares to the balcony while holding aloft her axe.

Lizzie murders her father as well and immediately asks Bridget to summon Miss Russell because she does not want to be alone.

13. Lauren Drew looks really, really good covered in fake blood.

It’s time for the interval!

[anthro-apology]

’lizzie in kronk mode’ is taking me OUT that’s exactly what it is

[thegirl20]

@lavender-gayz replied to your post “From the Lizzie script in 'The Dress' scene: "She...”:

This is hilarious - it was not obvious to me at all either! A slightly dishevelled Alice walking in and the last strains of "Will you stay" would have been so juicy. I guess the reveal that Lizzie had murdered the elder Bordens would have been more devastating for Alice if she'd spent the night with Lizzie after the murders, as opposed to the v overt flirting and passionate kissing she'd done up to that point...

​Definitely felt like they decided to leave it out of this production as it was in no way 'obvious'. I wouldn't have minded them including it though.

It would have meant she was in the house during 'What the fuck now Lizzie?'. I'm now imagining her upstairs in a post-coital haze while Lizzie giggles and gleefully skips over the bloody bodies of her parents.

[anthro-apology]

tfw you finally get the lesbian love of your life in 1892 and immediately find out she axe murdered her parents

[cactus-cactus-cactus]

Lizzie is kind of the blueprint for insane historical fanfic musicals. Like they’re not even PRETENDING to be based in reality they quote Macbeth almost as many times as they quote the court documents. The Lizzie/Alice relationship has NO historical basis (there’s more evidence for Lizzie and Bridget afaik??) there’s so much crazy speculation the murder victims aren’t even IN the show (and when they are they’re watermelons) they wear sluttified inaccurate 1892 fits where to even begin with the score….. it’s cunty it’s glamorous it’s bloody and sexy and tragic and it makes no sense and it makes perfect sense. this is what true crime should be.

[anthro-apology]

it’s the way the costumes start off pretty accurate and then the show goes completely off the rails and now everyone’s in mouth-watering leather like YES PLEASE

[lesmiserabelles]

sydney shepherd and kim onah as lizzie borden and alice russell | lizzie, theaterworks hartford