August 02, 2004 - 8:18 p.m.

Theatrical Weekend

Honestly, my life is feast or famine lately. I either have a lot planned for any given weekend, or absolutely nothing. This past weekend was, happily, one of the ones with a lot going on, and it all turned out to be fun.

On Friday evening, I went to see Much Ado About Nothing on Boston Common with a friend who will be moving away in couple of weeks. We had a picnic dinner and settled down on a blanket in the warm summer air to watch the show. Much Ado is not one of the Bard's deeper plays, but it is still one of my favorites. I guess I am a sucker for a witty romantic comedy (hence my love of the movie An Ideal Husband). And theater, especially Shakespeare is inexplicably better in the open air. Despite being a free outdoor production, the sets and costumes were lovely - there was even a working fountain. I still can't figure out why some of the male characters were costumed a la Mark Twain in light three piece suits and summer hats, when the women wore dresses best suited to a Roman goddess, and the rest of the men wore unsurprising military garb. The acting was quite good and drew many laughs, especially Benedick, who was a little over the top, but it worked.

On Saturday, I drove out to Williamstown, where I joined friends for Noel Coward's Design for Living at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. The cast included Marisa Tomei and Steven Weber (of Wings fame). Overall the show was good. I really enjoyed Coward's witty dialogue, and it was delivered in a quick and lively manner. The male leads, Weber and Campbell Scott, were very good, utterly charming. Marisa Tomei wasn't bad, but her performance was very evocative of Katharine Hepburn, which was both distracting and unoriginal. After all the hilarity, the play has a surprisingly serious ending, which took some getting used to. The show deals with unconventional relationships, so it was also very interesting to consider that it was written and first performed early in the 20th century. The sets for the show, a completely different one for each of the three acts, were spectacular. Each captured a different style from the era, from a dingy Paris studio to a chic and glamorous NYC penthouse.

After the show, we hung out and played games in the house I lived in for three summers in college. That was a little trippy, since I haven't spent much time there since, but the place is very familiar to me, especially as it hasn't changed at all since I lived there. Anyway, it was a very fun evening. Well worth the drive out to western MA.

Yesterday I came back and did a little shopping and wandering in Harvard Square before joining still more friends for a lovely dinner. A very, very pleasant weekend all told.

Today was the kids' first day at camp, and they seemed happy afterward, though a little tired. I managed to fill my hours sans rugrats with a much needed nap, taking care of some correspondence and random life details, running errands for the employers, and a late lunch at Friendly's. Tomorrow, I have grand plans of going to the gym for the first time in weeks, and on Wednesday I am going in to the hospital for an extra volunteering shift. The Child Life Director who supervises us has agreed to have lunch with me so I can pick his brain about the Child Life career. I am eager to hear what he has to say.

Well, I have certainly rambled long enough, and Monster House is on. This week they are building something for an organization that rescues chihuahuas! There will be a lot of channel switching between that and the Red Sox game, I imagine, though I have higher hopes of the doghouse turning out well than the baseball game.

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