“I hate to admit this because it’s one of my all-time favourite plays but we left after the first act”, my friend confessed last night.
“That’s such a relief, because I left after the first act, too”, I replied.
We were chatting about the latest production in Sydney of “Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf”, a play I have loved since first reading at high school back in the early 80s. As we read the play in school, I played the role of George. “Of course you did”, my friend joked.
My friend said it was the ultra modern set for the play that first raised red flags. “What a dump” is the first line in the play, uttered by Martha, as she enters their home after a late-night party. Throughout the play, there are many references to the dishevelled house, but that wasn’t reflected in the more contemporary set.
“They weren’t really the characters they were portraying either. They were just saying the lines”, my friend added, as we continued to chat about the play.
It’s not like we’re traditionalists when it comes to theatre. We both like interesting, experimental stuff. But we concluded this modern re-imagining we had both seen as Sydney Festival wasn’t for us.
I looked around the reviews, and there were similar feelings expressed by others.
The other interesting thing about going to the play was to see how few people turned up. When I booked, the play was close to full, but on the night itself, the theatre was maybe only 30-40% full.
It’s all COVID, of course. We may not be in an official lockdown, but there sure as hell is an unofficial one.
Last night we were at the Australia Day Concert at the Sydney Opera House.
And the night before I went to an Australian Of The Year event at Taronga Zoo.
Aside from that, I’ve been limiting myself to remaining mostly at home.
Now that I am back in Sydney and working from home again, I have been “treating” myself with a lunchtime meal somewhere locally each week. A few days ago, for example, I wandered down to Bar Cleveland. As with the times, there was only a handful of people there, and so the meal arrived quickly, and there was a high level of customer service.
There went as many prawns in the linguini as I’d hoped. Even though I’m not a “specialist” in the dish, linguini with prawns is one of my all-time favourite meals. I know how to pick a good one, and the Bar Cleveland version is pretty good. I only wish there had been six prawns, not four.
So yeah, that’s life right now.
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