Far Away

Saturday night I saw the HRDC production of Far Away (Caryl Churchill) at the Loeb Ex. I knew it was a short play, but knew nothing more than that.

It's a creepy play. The first act has a child slowly telling her aunt what she's seen her uncle do out by the shed, and the aunt explains all the disturbing things away, sort of. In the second act, the child has grown up, and become a hat maker, chatting with her coworker. Except that it seems the contracts for these hats are for those put on trial, in batches (for crimes unrevealed to us). In the third act, she has gone back to visit her aunt, and it's all-out war now, us v. the Canadians, and the Venezualans, and the dentists, and the ants, and the elephants (who just went over to another side), and the deer. Oh, not the deer, they've just joined us. And the world slowly crumbles into madness and paranoia.

It left me wondering; it felt like it needed just a bit more plot, a bit more information, or linkages, or something, to form into a whole story. As it is, it's more like some of the 'short stories' I tend not to care for, since they are more more mood pieces, or prose tone poems, or something, but not actual stories. It did give a lot to talk about, however. Definitely a show I would've liked dramaturg's notes for.

The production was pretty good, the lighting and costuming working well. The sound, on the other hand, was a bit disruptive, being far too loud at times (I didn't clap at the end; I was too busy covering my ears.). Oh, and whoever made the program didn't proofread at all (as evidenced by the "Baord Liason", which made me twitch more than the names not aligned due to ellipses not done with tabs, and the missing box rule, etc.).

Notes from grocery shopping

I wonder what burned in Watertown tonight? There were fire engines and lots of street closings backing up traffic. Thank goodness improptu workarounds didn't get me lost.

Chinese cactus pear, aka dragon fruit, is the most luridly pink fruit I've ever seen. (The photo really doesn't do it justice.)

All the markets have the game broadcast through the store. For my unscientific sample size of two, anyway.

I have no idea what to do with raw olives. So I got some for Z, so she'll do the research :-).

Largest unplanned purchase of the evening: dried tomatoes. Five pounds of them. Any and all suggestions for uses very welcome.

I couldn't resist scooping up cranberries, rather than buying them bagged. Then I saw the rhubarb. And there's still lots of apples from the farm. I don't know how it's going to turn out, but I've got cran-apple-rhubarb something simmering now. Definitely something I'll need to add sugar to.

addendum:
There's nothing quite like the wonderful smell of onions frying. Mmmm. And it turns out that "Natural Bean Curd Cake" is quite nice, like dry very-well-pressed tofu, with perhaps a little more texture. Just what I wanted, as it turns out.