Tonight at 8:30

This past weekend, my old friend H and I met up at Niagara on the Lake where we stayed at a B&B and spent all day Saturday at the various Shaw Festival Theatres. What would possess us to do such a thing? The rare opportunity to witness the entire cycle of ten plays by Noel Coward known as Tonight at 8:30. Jealous? You should be; the cycle is seldom played in its entirety, let alone all in one day!

The schedule was like this:

• 9:30am STAR CHAMBER (the longest play of the ten which surprisingly featured my super crush, Marla McLean [perhaps better known as the girl in that Lipton Commercial with the big sparkling eyes])
• 11am WAYS OF THE HEART (featuring the emotionally wrenching The Astonished Heart, hilarious and Edward Gorey-esque Family Album, and the delightfully absurd noir Ways and Means)
• 3pm PLAY, ORCHESTRA, PLAY (featuring the song and dance duo known as the Red Peppers, the dysfunctional Fumed Oak, and the somewhat disappointing Shadow Play–it did not use any shadow play and relied too heavily on the video screen backdrop.)
• 8pm BRIEF ENCOUNTERS (featuring the unforgettable Still Life, the bollywood-infused We Were Dancing, and frenzied hilarity of Hands Across the Sea)

We had such a great time. By the end of the day our faces were sore from smiling and laughing. Tremendous performances, wonderful crowds, and lots of serendipitous favors! It will easily be one of the best weekends of my life.

It seems apt that I should pull out my favorite Noel Coward quote, words that I’ve posted here before, words that I try to live by:

…I am neither stupid nor scared, and my sense of my own importance to the world is relatively small. On the other hand, my sense of my own importance to myself is tremendous. I am all I have to work with, to play with, to suffer and to enjoy. It is not the eyes of other that I am wary of, but my own. I do not intend to let myself down more than I can possibly help, and I find that the fewer illusions I have about me or the world around me, the better company I am for myself.

Lovely.

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