Friday, July 8, 2005

Plays all day
First of all, I'd like to apologize for not being able to visit site yesterday and probably today. I'm dead tired and I just wanna type up some kinda record for yesterday's play outing. I'll get back on track when I'm rested, alright? You'll know when I am.

Now to yesterday's Festival outing...

I had an awesome time. Such an awesome time, I'm grinning just thinking about the day. The following events and such may not sound like much to you guys, but I just found that I really enjoyed myself.

To start, the whole day had PERFECT weather. And I mean perfect. The sun was out with a few clouds here and there with enough of a nice light breeze to cool you off while strolling.

My family and I left the house around 9:00am and arrived at Niagara On The Lake at around 10:30am. We had a quick fill brunch at Tim Hortons before our show, which started at 11:30.

The first play we saw was in The Royal George Theatre and featured a one-act matinee called Something On The Side. The story (set in Paris) involves three men intertwined in a strange coincidence of relationships with three women (and throw in a dork who's in love and just bitches throughout the show). I have to say this was my favourite play of the day. The three men were simply hilarious as they chatted amoungst each other about their mistresses, how cheating is so much fun and chuckling hearty, bellowing laughs in unison with one another. Like all plays, I shouldn't even attempt to explain the whole thing. You have to see it for yourself. The static set looked quite fancy and a bit deceiving.

As I left the theatre, I massaged my face after laughing so much. I walked along the main street and poked in and out of the neat little shops there. One particular shop caught my eye. A hat shop. Now as a long-haired guy, I don't normally look at hats but these weren't your typical baseball dirtbag caps. This is a fancy shop full of fedoras, bowlers, safari hats and plenty of hoity-toity stuff for the ladies. I instantly fell in love with one beautiful hat that fit me like it was destined to protect my head from the sun. A black raw leather cowboy hat. The moment I put it on, the shopkeeper said to me, "That looks fantastic on you!". And I agreed. All I needed was a horse. It was just sooooo nice. However, it was $125 and I didn't have my money on me that day. Now it was a matter of "borrowing" from the 'rents. I have the money to pay them back but they told me to wait until after dinner that evening. So I decided to give in and wait it out. I mean, if getting a $125 dream cowboy hat was a matter of waiting a few hours, I'm in!

The next play was a preview programme at The Court House Theatre called Belle Moral: A Natural History. Now unlike the first play, this comedy was quite weird but totally interesting. Aside from silly one-line quips, this play (set in the coast of Scotland in 1899) featured major character building and it's plot toyed with notions of evolution, past-to-present family histories, theories of science versus the freedom of art. My goodness, it was so incredibly captivating. And the set... Wow. It was brilliant. Three walls aligned with one another flipped around allowing the players to bring in/out stage props and set. But that's not what impressed me. It was the wall itself. The painting (or what I thought was a painting) on the wall looked to be a calm pastel impressionism landscape painted over what looked to be a regular mansion wall. Close to the end of the play, the landscape faded so it couldn't have been a painting. And it doesn't stop there. The walls were semi-transparent! Lights shone through to mimic sunlight through a window and flashes of white lights boomed right through as if true lighting just hit. I can't explain it. You'd have to see it for yourself.

We left the theatre and hopped into the van. Now the family and I were hungry. Very very hungry. We planned to go to this one fancy little restaurant but after seeing the meal portions from the patrons on the patio, we decided to spend on something a bit more filling.

We found a simple little family-run restaurant and had pasta and loads of chicken wings. Throughout dinner, I dreamed about what was to be my cowboy hat. Then my dream bubble popped when we were given free dessert.

At around 7:00pm, we rushed back to the main street (close-by to the next theatre) and I headed to the hat shop.

It was closed.

After a curse or two and a stubbed toe from kicking a tree (Sorry, Mother Nature), I calmed down a bit and decided it wasn't meant to be. And it came as sort of a good thing because I'll have more money for today (SHOPPING!!).

The final show was held at the popular Festival Theatre. It was called You Can Never Tell, another comedy. Not as deep as Belle Moral but not as "in-your-face" as Something On The Side. It was a cute play about a father separated from his wife and kids (two of which, a boy & girl, were hilarious and another pretty daughter who fought emotions towards a local dentist). Okay. Divorce isn't a typical source of comedy but it was all in the characters. I particularly liked the dentist, the daughter and their ever-changing feelings towards each other. It was cute. I found myself repeating a genius line in the play. "My specialty is being right when others are wrong." Heh. I love it. And yet AGAIN the set looked beautiful. Since the play was set in a seaside town, the set consisted of sea influenced props and furniture including a clam sofa, coral-like wall structure and pearly colours like white accented with bits of pink or turquoise of light blue. It was a pretty sight to look at, yes. And for the last time in this post, I can't explain the whole thing. You'd have to see it for yourself.

Now after a long day of laughing and a third of a day whining about the damn hat store closing at 6:00pm, my family and I headed home. Now I'm here.

Okay. It's obvious that I no professional play critic. Nor can I properly overview a play in its entirety. But I did tell you what I liked and that's good enough.

And so we've come to today (Friday). Today I'm to shop with a friend. To have relax and enjoy my kick-ass city as we aimlessly wander it's streets and downtown mall.

That's it from me for today. Enjoy the start to your weekend!

Cheers.

- enin -

P.S. Tea in a garden is incredibly relaxing. You have to try it..
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