Category: Theater

Fall Potpourri

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NEW BEGINNINGS

As the saying goes, you can’t go home again.  But you can go visit.  We spent a wonderful day in Bethlehem at Lehigh University celebrating the inauguration of Lehigh’s 15th president, Joe Helble.  The campus looked lovely, and the ceremony had the requisite pomp prompting misty eyes.  The Chief Penguin and I were pleased to see and chat with so many former colleagues and friends.  The experience was simultaneously a trip down memory lane and a day of optimism for the future.  Go Lehigh, cheers for the Brown and White!

RECENT READING–SUPER LIBRARIAN

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

Belle da Costa Greene (history net.com)

Marie Benedict writes novels focused on strong women, usually ones who have been ignored by history or not fully appreciated.  I’ve read several of her works, but this one stands out as one of the best.  Bella da Costa Greene was initially hired by financier J. P. Morgan to catalog and document his library of rare manuscripts and books.  Over time, her role expanded.  She became his chief negotiator and agent in the purchase of new items, even traveling to England and the Continent solo.  Their relationship was a close one, both professionally and personally, and after Morgan’s death, she was named the first director of the library.  All of this would be remarkable enough for the early 20th century when few women had such prominent positions, but Greene had a big secret.  Born Black, she had lived as a white woman since her teens.  Benedict and Murray’s novel depicts the stresses and challenge of maintaining this façade at a time of more rabid racism.  

This book will delight my librarian friends and is a welcome tribute to one woman’s determination and accomplishments.  Partly due to her efforts, the Morgan Library transitioned from a strictly private library to a library and museum open to the public.  Now I need to make another visit!  (~JWFarrington)

COMPELLING LIVE THEATER!

To Kill a Mockingbird

After a long Covid hiatus, Broadway is back.  The other evening, we went to see To Kill a Mockingbird, and it was simply marvelous!  The entry lines for checking vaccination status moved along efficiently, and masks were required in line and everywhere in the theater.  Theater staff enforced mask wearing, citing individuals with a reminder if they weren’t complying.  We had third row seats and the hall was full.

Like many, I first read Harper Lee’s novel when I was a teen and then again later in life.  I recalled upright Atticus Finch and Scout, his curious, frisky little girl.  Set in the 1930’s in a small Alabama town, multiple strands are interwoven with the main plot.  Atticus’s willingness to defend an innocent Black man against death penalty charges is consistent with his belief in the goodness and decency in everyone.  Later, his belief is tested when events spin out of control.  His two children, Jem and Scout, and their friend Dill don’t always understand or agree with him, but they defend him.  It’s a powerful play, set in a different time, yet with messages that resonate today.  Despite its seriousness, there are occasional bits of humor, often provided by the children acting as chorus and interpreters.

Jeff Daniels as Atticus and Cecilia Keenan-Bolger as Scout are both superb, while Michael Braugher is convincing in his Broadway debut as the accused Tom Robinson.   Highly recommended!  (~JWFarrington)

CRAFT IN THE KITCHEN

Fanciful Halloween pumpkins

Clementines for Halloween

My older granddaughter loves to bake, but she also enjoys just puttering in the kitchen and inventing creative ways to make edible food items.  In anticipation of Halloween, she devised a clever way to showcase clementines as jack o’lanterns.  

Peeled clementines are decorated with a banana slice and some green colored yogurt for the top and the stem.  Eyes, nose, and mouth are devised from slices of prune glued on with molasses or honey.  Sprinkles or other decorative touches can also be incorporated.  This was a fun activity for both granddaughters and me.  E also has her own blog, but since it’s available by invitation only, I’m unable to share the link.  Suffice it to say, she wrote a detailed recipe complete with a photo. 

Note: Header photo of Lehigh’s University Center (Packer Hall) and clementines ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved). 

Tidy Tidbits: Gander, Oxford, New York

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This week’s blog brings together several compelling works. One is a musical related to 9/11 while the other two are books. One book is a wonderful novel about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, while the other is a cancer memoir, painful yet ultimately redeeming.

POWERFUL VIEWING: Remembering 9/11

Come from Away (Apple TV+)

Plane on the tarmac at Gander (appleinsider.com)

I doubt there is anyone of a certain age who doesn’t recall where he or she was on September 11, 2001. Come from Away (2013) is a musical about the passengers whose planes were diverted to Gander, Newfoundland, and how they were embraced by the local residents.   Unabashedly energetic, even boisterous, it is also a compelling and heart-tugging perspective on five days of confusion, chaos, and community.  Folks of different religions, nationalities, and cultures were thrown together at a tragic, uncomfortable time.   

Members of the cast play multiple roles, switching back and forth from Gander community leaders to one of the many passengers.  Standouts for me were the female airline pilot played by Jenn Colella based on the real Beverley Bass; Joel Hatch as the mayor of Gander; and Beulah Davis, chief organizer and comforter, played by Astrid Van Wieren.  There is conflict, craziness, and coming together.  I found watching it an uplifting experience.  A live Broadway performance was filmed for this production and is aired with no breaks or intermission.  Highly recommended!

RECENT READING

THE LANGUAGE OF WOMEN

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams 

Author & her book jacket (betterreading.com.au)

I loved this novel and read it in just a day.  If you love words and their meanings and how they are used, you too will be fascinated.  Author Williams wondered how gender affects the use and understanding of words.   Given that the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was largely the work of older white Victorian men, she crafted a novel that reflects first a child’s, then a young woman’s participation in the creation of the dictionary.  Some of the characters such as Dr. James Murray, the chief architect, and several of the male lexicographers are historic figures. So is Edith Thompson, a historian who contributed definitions and quotations for many thousands of entries.

The novel focuses on Esme, a child of six, who hides under the sorting table collecting the occasional stray definition slip of paper. Over the course of publication of all the fascicles from A-B to Z , Esme becomes a woman.    Esme spends hours in the Scriptorium where the work is carried out.  As she gets older, she becomes involved in sorting mail, then checking quotes at the Bodleian and other libraries, and eventually taking on some editing and correction duties.  Lizzie, the household maid of all work, takes care of Esme and a friendship develops.

Esme is curious and full of questions and begins to wonder why some words, particularly those spoken by the lower classes, but not written down in books, are not to be included in the OED.  She gets a graphic education in colorful language from Mabel, a down-at-the-heels vendor in the local market and creates her own slips with quotations for these less than polite terms. An only child whose mother has died, Esme leads a sheltered life until she meets actress Tilda and her brother Bill, encounters the suffragist movement, and delivers pages to the typesetting room at the press where she meets Gareth, a handsome young compositor.

The novel relates the laborious process of releasing the letters of the alphabet in sections from 1888 to completion in 1928 alongside the coming-of-age of Esme from age six to middle age.  For Esme, the treatment of the suffragettes is disturbing, while the exodus of men to war means more work coupled with an all-consuming worry for their safety. How Williams weaves in the suffrage movement and the impact of WWI add to the richness of this story. But, some readers may be surprised at the ending and question if the author wraps things up too neatly.

Esme is not a common name. I wondered if Williams chose it as homage to J. D. Salinger’s notable story, For Esme with Love and Squalor, about a 13-year-old girl and a soldier during the Second World War.  

Like the process of compiling a comprehensive dictionary, this novel unfolds slowly and gradually.  I was committed to it from the first paragraphs.  Highly recommended!  (~JWFarrington)

CANCER AND BEYOND

Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted by Suleika Jaouad

Author Jaouad (latimes.com)

Cancer memoirs often take one of two forms.  Either they are an account of battling and surviving the medical aspects of cancer or they are one individual’s experience and reflections which end just before death.  Ms. Jaouad’s memoir is somewhat different in that she was diagnosed with leukemia at age 22, just after completing college.  It was a delayed diagnosis, and she was by then very sick. She underwent massive chemotherapy treatments, endured numerous hospitalizations due to infections, and ultimately required a bone marrow transplant, a long and arduous process involving months of isolation.  

The medical details in the first part of her memoir are graphic, frightening and often unpleasant.  Yet she writes about them with candor, humility, and even occasional humor.  She was blessed with loving parents and an unbelievable new boyfriend who re-arranged his life to be her primary caregiver.  

What is perhaps more appealing is part two in which she attempts to regain a sense of normalcy.  All treatments are over, and she’s deemed able to travel and work again.  Yet her immune system is still, and may always be, fragile.  She tires easily and finds it difficult to focus and apply herself without the goal of the next medical procedure.  How to be normal again is not something the medical team has covered.  

Probably what saves her, or at least provides emotional and intellectual sustenance, is a solo cross-country journey she undertakes.  Dubbed the One Hundred Day Project, it is to visit individuals who wrote or e-mailed her after she published a regular column in the New York Times. Meeting these almost strangers, Jaouad gains perspective on herself and reflects on how she was often self-centered and needy in some of her relationships.  I found this section of the book satisfying as she finally goes beyond her four years of treatment and comes into her own as a more well-rounded person.  I wouldn’t recommend this book to everyone, but some readers may find her journey amazing and her sprightly writing a gift.  (~JWFarrington)

Note: Header photo of morning clouds ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved).

Sarasota Scene: Theater, etc.

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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

(Sfexaminer.com)

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) 

Tidy Tidbits: Culture Notes

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ON STAGE

The Sound of Music

You’ve probably seen at least one stage production of The Sound of Music or the movie starring Julie Andrews, but did you pay attention to the year and the context?  I don’t think I did until we saw the superb performance at the Asolo Theater.  This is a darker, more nuanced play and one that brings to the fore the rising Nazi presence in Austria in 1938.  The actors are great, especially Captain Von Trapp’s seven rambunctious children, the Mother Superior with a big voice that commands attention, and the always in motion, all arms and legs Maria.  Equally effective is the staging, particularly the last scene when the entire family performs in a competition.  If you live nearby, go see it!

ON THE PAGE

The Long Call by Ann Cleeves

Fans of Shetland and Vera, TV mystery series seen on PBS, will recognize Cleeves’ name as the author of the works upon which they are based.  I’ve not read any of these mystery novels, but decided to try the first work in a new series.  The Long Call introduces Matthew Venn, a gay detective married to the manager of a community arts center.  When a troubled man is found dead on the beach and a disabled young woman goes missing, all the leading suspects have ties to the arts center.  

What drew Simon Walden, the dead man, to Barnstaple, and how was he connected to the mentally challenged teenage girl he regularly sat next to on the local bus?  Venn is a complex and fascinating character who grew up in the Brethren faith, but later rejected it.  In working to solve this case, he must re-visit individuals from his past.  I found this mystery intriguing enough to read to the finish and will probably look for the next one in the series.  

ON THE SMALL SCREEN

Unbelievable (Netflix)

On the subject of crime, I’m currently watching Unbelievable, a graphic account of the investigation into a series of rapes that occurred mostly in Colorado.  Based on real events, it’s about two female detectives from different cities who come together to find a serial rapist.  Several victims are portrayed including Marie, a troubled young woman, who under persistent questioning from two male detectives recants her initial account of the rape.  Difficult and disturbing to watch, it is, nonetheless, a painstaking exploration of how rape crimes are handled or mishandled.

ON THE WAY HOME

Appleton Museum of Art

On our way back south from St. Augustine last week, we stopped in the town of Ocala and paid a visit to the Appleton Museum of Art. This small gem of a museum has a voluminous collection of Christmas decorations and figurines which they bring out each December. But, what was of most interest to several of us, was their featured exhibit of paintings from the Reading Public Museum in Pennsylvania. Entitled Across the Atlantic: American Impressionism through the French Lens, it showcases 65 paintings of early French Impressionistic work along with pieces done by American artists several decades later. It is a lovely exhibit and one worth lingering over. The museum also has European and Asian pieces in their permanent collection.

It was almost noon when we finished our tour. We drove into the center of town, admired Ocala’s town square with its brightly decorated Christmas tree, and then had a most satisfying lunch at Harry’s Seafood Bar & Grille. From the standard chicken Caesar salad to New Orleans style shrimp creole and the like, there is something for every taste. Service was lightning quick!

Note: Text and photos ©JWFarrington.