Is Twelfth Night the most appealing of Shakespeare's comedies? It's certainly my favorite and last night's performance at the Shakespeare Theater's Sydney Harmon Hall was the best performance of it we've seen yet. Great acting, great staging, great imagination from the director. We were in the second row and it was free as this was the annual Summer Free-For-All, so you can't be that. In order to save costs for the free-for-all the company will normally restage one of its previous shows. This Twelfth Night had originally been part of the 2008-2009 series and, as season tickets holders, we had tickets but couldn't go at the last minute due to family duties. We gave the tickets to our niece and her husband, who reported back that it was marvelous. And so it is. A charming production, and riotously funny.
One observation we made immediately was that the crowd for the free-for-all is much younger than the crowd for the shows during the season, which is to be expected. To begin with it's free so the younger folks who can't afford the price of an in-season shows will show up. Also, if you're not season ticket holders like my wife and I, you have to stand in line the day of the show to get tickets. Clearly, the younger crowd is more likely to do this than your old fogies. At any rate, we found ourselves last night to be older than the average age of the crowd rather than being the youngsters. Which is great. Everyone loves Shakespeare and some of these younger people will, as they age, become the season ticket holders of the future. Tradition is important. The passing on of the culture is important. We've lost much, as you will see below, but Shakespeare will always survive.
We dined at Carmine's before the show, which just opened up near the theater (which is right across from the Verizon Center.) We've been regulars at the Carmine's in NYC for years, both the 44th street and 91st street locations, and now they've just opened up in DC. The food is good but it's their salads we love especially. For years when I ask my wife where she wants to go to dinner she answers, "I want a Carmine's salad." Finally, I can deliver. We can report that the food has made the transfer from New York to DC without problem - it was really good.
We did encounter, alas, one more indication of continuing societal decay. I ordered a Beefeater martini before dinner, as is my want. It took forever to arrive and when it did the waiter explained it took so long because he had to type the entire thing in as I was the first person he'd waited on who'd ordered a martini. Carmine's opened up a few weeks ago and I'm his first martini drinker? I'd talked about the fate of the martini in one of my first posts three years back, linking to a column about its decline but last night drove home how far we've really have fallen. Virtually no one drinks martinis anymore. I'm one of the lasts one out there holding up the Mad Men culture. Me and Roger Sterling. Anyone else want to join us?
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