back to normal

I lost a whole day driving with a friend to NOL (Niagara on the Lake), dallying on the wine route, not sipping, just gazing at beautiful country.  Dinner at the Queenston Heights Restaurant overlooking the Niagara River valley; enjoying the view and warm breeze.  Perfect day until we arrived at our destination, not a play but an evening of "culture' comprising a reading,  not a performance- of a book first published in 1881. It hasn't worn as well as Shakespeare's work. Disappointing and tiring, but we had a lovely day. And, of course, I was tired.  

My battery is warning me again, down to 2%. Tomorrow, the world, no - words.

i can't help it

Some days just whip by.  I went to another play yesterday afternoon and that did it. 

I have been interested in Sarah Ruhl for some time now.She was given a MacArthur (familiarly called the Genius Award) Fellowship ($500,000 cash)! in 2005, the same year she got married, at age 31. I have seen two of her plays, three now. The Clean House (2004) was produced at the Canadian stage a few years ago; it was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 2005. At the Lyric Theatre in Boston I saw Dear Elizabeth (2012),  a dramatic adaptation of the letters between poets Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell.  Surprisingly, given today's LGBTQ-trans-everything climate, her adaptation (commissioned in 2003) of the popular novel, Orlando, by Virginia Woolf (1882-1942) is even hotter today than it was then.  Soulpepper is just part of a very broad trend.  I just read of a trans plus blind casting of Oklahoma, at the Ashland Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon, running until October. I'd like to try to get to it. The girl who cain't say no is Ado Andy.  Laurie falls in love with Curly, the cowgirl, and I forget who Aunt Eller is.  The play Orlando follows the suggestions (demands) of the novel, allowing a lot of no longer unusual casting, and it works.  I thought the costume design (by Gilllian Gallow) was the star of the show but I thought about it some more, wanting to like more.  I tried but I couldnt 't read more than the surface interpretation. There  was no emotional tug in the actors' work.  They were believable but they didn't move me.  Still, it was worth seeing. And I'll keep watching out for Sarah Ruhl.

Sorry, dear commenter, for taking so long to finish this. I ran out of time and battery time and my energy level ran very low.  I'll do a new blog tomorrow and come up to speed, I hope.  A bientôt.