Saturday, April 26, 2014

A date night! ART! The Quality of Life

Are we going to Providence Park and the Opening Night of the Portland Thorns?  

No, we are headed toward the theater!  And, apparently, therapy llamas.  (Which I have dark feelings towards, but which everyone else seems to deeply love).  Here's Matt with the llamas.

We are at Artists Repertory Theater to see this play, which we are seeing for free.  This is the second week in a row we've been privy to free theater!  Hooray!

Bad self-portrait before the show.

I'm not the biggest fan of ART's stage because there are good seats that face the stage straight on, and then there are the rest of the seats which sit sideways to the stage.  Yet they stage everything (or at least the two plays I've seen) just for the front facing seats.  Sadly we have side seats, but they are close to the "good" seats this time.  The play began with the majority of the stage covered up.

But when uncovered, look at that set design!  A yurt!  And burned trees draped with plenty of objects scavenged from a fire.
The play itself was a weeper.  It dealt with loss.  One couple was grieving their daughter's murder and the other couple was grieving the loss of the their house, cat and the cancer that had spread through the husband. The emotions were raw, both in the characters in the play and the audible crying in the audience. It was also incredibly funny in parts and very worth seeing. 

2 comments:

balyien said...

I got so excited when I saw the picture of Providence Park. I can't believe I actually let myself believe for a moment that you'd gone to a soccer game, haha.

Is ART the theater just down the street from that little brick building I used to live in? I went there a couple of times. I liked it because it was so small & intimate. On the other hand, I agree about the weirdness of the seats on the side.

I tried to explain to someone the other week what a yurt is. It didn't go very well.

Sara K. said...

What a fun twist on a theater/sports venue. The set design is pretty incredible. No therapy llamas for you?