CURRENT THEATER
This past week we enjoyed two plays at our own Asolo Repertory Theatre. The Lifespan of a Fact is a witty and fast paced 80 minutes of discussion, argument, and negotiation between a young magazine fact checker, a noted author, and the magazine editor. It’s based on real events. Since our son was a fact checker at The New Yorker early in his career, this play appealed to us. As always, the staging was creative and the acting excellent.
We also went to Murder on the Orient Express, probably Agatha Christie’s most performed work since it has had life as a film and a TV series as well as a stage play. The Asolo makes all its own sets and even constructs sets on commission for cruise lines and other theaters. The revolving train set for this performance is simply amazing! On one side a dining car, on another several staterooms and on another more seating. Combine that with the use of projection and sound effects and you almost feel you are on a real train. Two of our favorite actors, Asolo regulars Peggy Roeder and David Brietbarth, also have roles.
DINING ON LONGBOAT KEY
We had dined at Shore LBK during its soft opening some months ago and decided to brave the traffic during “Season” and take our friends. We and they were delighted with the meal we had and with the water view! Yes, Shore is large and loud, but both the service (our waitress had a nice sense of humor) and the food were superb. Two of us ordered the red snapper over arancini cake and spinach, and the other two tucked into the ribs and the swordfish. Our reservation was for 5:30 pm and, while early, this was good since as we neared the end of the meal, the dining room was busier and noisier.
RECENT READING—Historical Fiction
The Last train to London by Meg Waite Clayton
In high school, I never cared much for history and managed to go through college without taking any history courses. As an adult, I’ve become a fan of good historical fiction and have learned some history and gained insights into events through the experiences of fictional characters. Ms. Clayton is not an author I had previously encountered despite her having written a number of noted novels.
I found this novel about the Kindertransport of mostly Jewish children out of Nazi Europe to England especially compelling. Clayton has two parallel narratives going that eventually intersect. In 1936 Vienna, writer Stephan Neuman is the privileged teenaged son of a wealthy chocolate family. They are Jewish. He becomes friends with Zofie-Helene Perger, a mathematically brilliant Christian girl whose mother is the editor of an anti-Nazi newspaper. Each of them has a much younger sibling, he, his brother Walter (who has a beloved stuffed rabbit named Peter), and she, her sister Johanna. When new laws against Jews are enacted, the young people can no longer meet.
Simultaneously, Truus Wijsmuller-Meijer lives in Amsterdam with her husband Joop and has already begun dangerous clandestine expeditions to Germany to bring young children to Holland. They have no children of their own due to her several miscarriages, a fact that weighs heavily on them. How the lives of the three principals unfold and how they all end up on a train together is both emotionally wrenching and intellectually satisfying. Truus was a real person who indeed brought six hundred children out of Germany to England plus more. She became known as Tante (Aunt) Truus.
The novel is written in short chapters with very descriptive titles that alternate focusing on Stephan, Zofe, and Truus. They read somewhat like vignettes, capturing a particular moment in time that moves each one’s story forward; yet they are done with a light, matter of fact touch, even though the conditions and events being described are often horrific. It’s a novel of courage and love midst great danger. I am now motivated to read some of Clayton’s other novels. (~JWFarrington)
