It was so well-trained I thought it was a puppet, at first

First off, many thanks for the birthday wishes from everyone. I credit them with allowing me to successfully survive into my 31st year relatively unscathed. If not for the love of my friends, I probably would have fallen into an open sewer or been devoured by wild squirrels. Call it karma, fortune, or fate, I still appreciate the love ya'll sent out for nudging it in the right direction..

The weekend itself was much fun. The GF and I had many adventures trying a new restaurant, watching Low in concert in a neat but small auditorium, attending an awesome production of Pericles, and attending our first hockey game together (no fights though, which disappointed the GF immensely). Entertaining stories abound from the weekend, but I’ll focus on the really good stuff.

At Pericles, we were up in the mezzanine. Being a Goodman production, the audience was on the “mature” side, with all the associated issues that come with it. The GF and I both thought that one woman in particular probably had hearing issues. One of the characters in the play is a queen, who was portrayed as having a small dog (complete with sorta-period ruffled collar). She carried the dog everywhere with her in the later scenes, and said dog (a small Pomeranian) was completely professional – no parking, no squirming, no upstaging the other actors. The GF and I were both impressed. So was this woman, who was seated about 10-15 seats to our right. In the middle of the scene, she said to her friend “That’s a really well-trained dog!”.

Ordinarily, this would have been mildly annoying but tolerable. However this woman apparently had turned off her hearing aid in order to use one of the Goodman-supplied hearing-assist devices and had no idea how loud her voice was. So she said it loud enough to be heard by everyone in the audience – including (no doubt) the actors on stage. To their credit, the actors held steady, not missing a beat*. The audience, however, had a harder time. I myself needed every ounce of inner strength not to burst out laughing. I still giggled a little though.

* Even the dog. No wonder he gets work so easily.

Comments

KC said…
I can't even imagine the training it must have taken to keep that doggie still and silent. It's difficult enough to get the standard-bearers and non-speaking soldiers to be still and silent.
towwas said…
I saw Pericles last year! It was so good! It was at the Shakespeare Theatre in D.C.
grrrbear said…
The production I saw was directed by the same woman who directed the DC production, so we probably saw pretty much the same show.

You're so right, it was soooo good!
towwas said…
Hey yeah! It also had small, well-trained dogs. And a kick-ass set - how cool was the part when they all walked in carrying the tufts of grass for the meadow?
grrrbear said…
Yeah that was a really neat way to set up the "Hey we're actually outside" moment. I also really liked all the sparkly confetti and the little boats on sticks to indicate "Hey, we're sailing".

KC, you should totally plan a trip up to Chicago to see it. Worth every penny...
towwas said…
If anyone's still reading the comments this far down, the Shakespeare Theatre just announced this is going to be their free outdoor production in June! Yay! You should come see it again.