Those Who Would Govern Would Best Stay Away From God (Stratford, pt 5)

I love that the Tula communications center always has a monitor free, so no waiting and no time limits, and apparently no closing. I DON'T love their netnanny, which not only attempts to keep me away from reading my email, it has blocked me from reading political cartoons. I thought I'd catch up on Cagle's collected reactions to Robertson's fatwa, but I can't get through without a supervisor's password.

I'm over 40, I shouldn't have to say "Mother may I" to access anything!!!

*huff* Okay, on with the show. This is gonna be a long one, so lots of cuts below.

( It was EDWARD II for yesterday's matinee. )

Obviously, she hadn't been reading the playbill writeups. Ron Kennell's says "...in the latter two plays he had his head chopped off, thus losing his head about 59 times." Graham Abbey's says that after starting as a young page, "...he has been married, divorced, impaled, poisoned, decapitated, shot, and even graduated high school on the Stratford stage."

After the show, I went around to mingle with the crowd and the fleet of bicycles at the stage door. ( Scott and Ron. )

(My B&B proprietress tells a Ron story - she was trying to call someone down the block to turn around, but couldn't shoult loudly enough. Ron was passing by and she asked for his help - HE had no problem projecting down the block!)

Dinner was at Garlic, which I think is new. Very expensive, but I was willing to splurge a bit. What I wasn't willing to do was eat spicy food, and although I thought I'd ordered something mild - beef in a smoked gouda sauce with a corn/tomato/spinach thing and potatoes dauphin - it tasted like Dante's Inferno. So I bolted before dessert and picked up a "chocolate monkey" ice cream at Balthazar's to quench the fires.

Then ( The Lark. )

...and I stepped into the warm Stratford night.

Today is the last day to fling myself into idyl; I have Hello Dolly and The Tempest, both at the Festival, so I'm not going far. Probably just down to the river, here in the communication center, and the Principal's pantry for dinner, with stopoffs for a snort in the Eaton Lounge. I've bailed on the review book du jour - reading three cozies where the kooky, fashion-conscious lead is dating the detective is two too many in a row - and am reading the thriller about Marlowe and modern intelligence gathering.

It's a Little Lumpy, but It Rings! (Stratford, part... 6? Lost count)

Nobody can screw up Hello Dolly unless they're totally incompetent, and Stratford is most competent of all; it was a glittering, ambitious, giddy production with a train onstage and superb dancers and fireworks and timing right out of a bedroom farce and a leading lady who unfortunately wasn't up to snuff.

Oh, Lucy Peacock hit her notes (mostly) and delivered her lines (without shading) - but Dolly Levi can and should be a nuanced character; for all the bombast and simplicity of the other roles, she has several facets. Dolly is at her center smart, witty, mourning, hungry, conniving, clever, confident, and desperate. Lucy got across the witty and a couple moments of clever, but there was nothing of the rest in her portrayal. Without the bubbling innocence of Carol Channing or the depth of Barbra Streisand, Lucy did it with a fixed smile and a lot of bombast.

It was a good play. It was a fun play. It was not as good as it could have been with someone else in the role - but I was one of the few to have any reservations as far as I can tell from the almost-full theater, the standing ovation, and the cheers that led to three curtain calls (followed by Horace chasing Dolly into the bedroom. That was a hoot!)

Two things very incidental to the play shocked me - that Marion Adler was merely in the chorus, and that a check of the program says that this is only her 5th season here. It's Scott's 14th, and I remember both of them talking about how horrified she was that they imported an American so I thought she'd put in a lot more time on the Stratford stage.* And I thought when she came back she'd have more to do - although the playbill notes that she's Lucinda in Into the Woods, and I don't know how big a role that is.

Now my only decision is if I want to walk to Bentley's for dinner (I've only eaten there once; last time I had every dinner there) or stay here in the Principal's Pantry and stick by the Festival theater. I'm going out with a bang - The Tempest, with the post-play discussion is my last play.

Then it's back to cold reality; I'm already packed, so I just throw my night stuff into the suitcases, shove them in the car, and hit the road right after I look over the usher's yard sale. I called my boss and she is having, if not a formal meeting, then some work on Sunday with her assistant. So while I haven't been ordered to drive it all in a day, it's heavily suggested, and she could use extra hands.

*sigh* I'd hoped to hit the renfaire if I drove it in a day.



*For those who don't know who I'm talking about, a quick primer. Scott Wentworth caught my attention in "Kung Fu-the Legend Continues" and I joined friends and fellow fans to see him live in Stratford in Y2K; have been coming back to see the whole festival ever since. He recognizes my face from the fan club, when it existed, and will usually stop to say hi and let me fangirl around him for a bit. Marion's his wife; a lovely woman and an excellent actress.