Spontanaity

24 March 2006 @ 23:57 | Posted in » Entertainment

I am very much a man of routine. This morning, however, I changed things up.

A colleague of mine offered me two tickets to see Trying at the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia free of charge. And she had a reduced parking pass to boot.

What generosity!

I called Gert and we made arrangements for Beetle to go to her grandparents for the evening. We hustled to get ready and stop by Grammy and Poppy’s house. Then we were off.

Gert is every bit as much a creature of routine as I am. As we drove to Philly, we both realized that we were tired. It has been a long week and we were going to a show that began at 8:00 PM. This was going to be an exhausting evening. And it was.

We arrived a bit early and walked around the theatre. The Walnut is America’s oldest theatre. The lobby is replete with theatre artifacts. Eventually we took our seats and read the Play Bill. Eight o’clock came and went. Nothing like being punctual. We noted that the audience was older. We also noted that the dress was far more casual than one would expect at the theatre. Shorts, jeans, sneakers, etc. Very few donned coats, let alone ties. Times have changed.

At about 8:10, the lights went down and the show started.

Trying is a two actor play told in two acts, three scenes each. Running time was about two hours twenty minutes, including an intermission.

The story is set in 1967. Judge Biddle is now 81. Biddle was Attorney General under FDR. He also served as chief judge of the Nuremberg Trials. He is now cantankerous and has apparently blown through several secretaries as they quit due to his penchant for being insulting.

The other character is Sarah (with an H), the newly hired secretary. Biddle did not hire her; his wife did. She is a 25 year old married woman who does not take much of Biddle’s grief.

The playwright, Johanna McClelland Glass, was Biddle’s secretary. Because of that, it is easily seen that this story is slanted. The major obstacle to Trying is how Biddle was portrayed. A man who served as the US AG and chief judge at Nuremberg is not easily accepted by the audience as a baffoon. True, he is at the end of his life, and a bit senile. Even so, this is a stately man and Glass missed the mark, I suspect. I could not get over this and thus Trying ultimately failed.

Both actors played their roles well. The set design (a loft over a garage) was very well crafted. The little wrinkle at the end I pegged early. Gert was impressed. For the most part, the play was satisfactory. Yet, there were a couple really slow spots. I think both Gert and I nodded at one point. It’s been a long week . . .

We were very happy to see Beetle again. She remained awake the whole ride from her grandparents’ to our home. But being the trooper she is, fell immediately to sleep once she hit her bed.

Spontanaity is tiring.