the ocean

This Thursday we went to see my niece's play, which was a non-racist adaptation of Peter Pan. So it was short, only about 40 minutes, which I have to say is great length for Peter Pan performed by grade schoolers. As one might expect, the talent pool was a mix, and everyone tried very hard. Also, it was run by an incredible talkative white woman who gave a speech for no reason before the program began and genuinely laughed at all of the jokes, which were of course not particularly funny. My niece played the classic role of Jukes the Pirate, who has two lines but a lot of sass. She was amazing! And more importantly, she seemed to have the time of her life, beaming throughout. And I don't think that was just her being in character as Jukes, she genuinely loved the experience.

We followed that artistic triumph up last night with Midsummer Night's Dream at the Joffrey, which I did not realize had absolutely nothing to do with the Shakespeare play. It was something about Sweden and dreams, neither of which I am particularly against. The dancing was of course incredible and there were some really stunning images throughout, but I felt like it kind of lost steam in the second act, when there were long segments without any real musical accompaniment and a number of bizarre "comic" interludes that felt truly Swedish. Also, every time the guy in front of me leaned forward even slightly, I lost my view of 2/3 of the stage. But it was a fun night! We are cultural!