"The Pillowman"

March 13, 2011 — The Players' Ring is near the waterfront, on the edge of historic Strawbery Banke in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Housed in an unpretentious brick building, seating only 70, it provides an intimate theater experience. There is no stage as such. The seats surround three sides of the small, square performance area which is at floor level.

I'm having trouble finding a way to describe "The Pillowman" by Martin McDonagh. It breaks many taboos, making the blackest of black humor out of mental retardation, child abuse and murder, religious tradition and ethnicity. With its profanity-laced dialog, subject matter and violence, it's strictly for mature audiences.

A writer is being held for questioning in some unnamed dictatorship. No Miranda rights or lawyers here — he's completely at the mercy of two sadistic interrogators, one a detective with a penchant for playing cruel mind games, the other a thuggish police officer prone to violent outbursts. At first, it's not clear what he's being held for, but it's gradually revealed that a series of child murders have occurred which bear stark resemblance to stories he has written. He vehemently denies any connection, but when his retarded brother arrives on the scene, everything changes.

The performances by four male actors are excellent, as are the direction and production values, remarkable considering how little there is to work with in the Ring's limited space. A couple of slideshows illustrate parts of the story. The audience was spellbound throughout by the alternately shocking, violent, humorous presentation. If you're into black humor and the trashing of social values, you'll love it. If you have a more sensitive nature, you might want to avoid it.

"The White Liars" and "Black Comedy"

February 27, 2011 — The weather cooperated nicely for a change. Friday, we were blitzed by an all-day mixed snow and freezing rain. The weather cleared Saturday so I had no trouble getting to the Stockbridge Theatre at Pinkerton Academy in Derry, New Hampshire, where I had a reservation for an afternoon performance. Today, Sunday, it's snowing heavily again in one of those late winter storms New Hampshire seems to delight in clobbering us with just when we think winter is over.

Saturday, Theatre Kapow presented two short plays by Peter Shaffer at the Stockbridge, "The White Liars" and "Black Comedy." The gentleman who introduced the plays said a common theme joins the two plays. It being a college, he jokingly told the audience their assignment was to figure out what it was. My take on it is that deception and pretension are the common threads that run through both plays.

"The White Liars" concerns a fortune teller with grand pretensions who conspires with a young man to deceive his friend who he believes is stealing his girl. The scheme backfires in many ways, and everyone involved is exposed as being less than truthful, about themselves as well as others. Gail Angellis is excellent as the fortune teller. The play was a little too slow-paced for my taste, and seemed longer than its actual time of less than an hour, but for the most part I enjoyed it.

"Black Comedy," in sharp contrast to the first play, was fast-paced and riotously funny. Lighting played a major part in the presentation. The players' light was the audience's darkness and vice versa. (Don't ask. You have to see it.) Suffice it to say, the play was a triumph of timing, stagecraft and stunts. Stumbling actors, furniture-moving and mistaken identities prevailed. The multi-talented Carey Cahoon appeared. I saw her last year as Hedda in "Hedda Gabler." Her comic turn in "Black Comedy" was quite a departure from Ibsen's tragic heroine. Carey is also a director and costume and set designer.

Theatre Kapow is a small company with impressive talent all around. Their next production will be " 'night Mother" in May. I plan to be there.

February Following January's Example

February 2, 2011 — The first two days of February promise more of the same that January threw at us. An all-day snowfall yesterday left about 5 inches, not really excessive, but it was added to the mountains of snow already on the ground, not to mention adding to our winter fatigue. Today, a more intense storm accumulated to about 8 inches. During today's storm, much of the precipitation was in the form of ice pellets. All precipitation ceased around 3 p.m.

There's an icicle the size of a small tree trunk reaching from the roof to the ground on the back corner of my house. I tried to break it up by whacking it with my snow shovel, but the shovel just bounced off it.

More snow predicted Saturday. And on and on it goes.

A Brutal January

January 24, 2011 — This month of January has been brutal. After three good-sized snowstorms in eight days, the temperature dropped to 17 below last night. It was 4 below when I left for my dentist appointment at 11, but with no wind and a bright sun, it didn't feel all that bad, as long as you didn't stay out in it too long. The city is buried in mountains of snow. Where it's been so cold, the snow has remained pristine and white.

I was hoping for a few days rest before the next storm, predicted for two days from now, but I had to go out and shovel a path to my natural gas unit on the side of the house this afternoon after the gas company notified me they'd come by tomorrow morning to install a ground which should have been done when they first installed the unit a year ago. The temperature was about 8 above while I was shoveling.

It's now 10:30 in the evening, and the temperature is 3 below 0. They predict higher temperatures tomorrow, in the 20s. That's not exactly balmy, but at least you won't be risking hypothermia if you stay out more than 10 minutes.

Nor'easter Hits the Region

January 13, 2011 — Yesterday's storm was predicted, and they said it was going to be a blockbuster, so I wasn't surprised when I got up in the morning to find it snowing heavily and about a foot already on the ground. Shortly after I got up, my dentist's office called to reschedule the appointment I had for that morning. I was wondering if my appointment for car service this morning would also be postponed.

I waited until early afternoon before I started shoveling out, slowly with frequent breaks. Later on, a kind neighbor came over and helped me shovel through the snow bank thrown up by the street plow in front of my driveway. It continued to snow lightly after we finished, so I was resigned to the fact I'd have to go out one more time to clean up a few more inches. Later in the evening, I cleared about an additional two inches. The final official total accumulation for the city was 18.5 inches. It looked like I'd have no problem getting to the dealer for my car service.

This morning I dropped the car off at the the dealer's and picked up a loaner car. The sun was shining, the snow was beautiful, but I was amazed at the huge snow banks left by plows, snowblowers and shovelers, piles that would take three or four storms to reach these heights in an average winter.

First Snow

December 27, 2010 — The first snowstorm of the season, reaching blizzard proportions in many areas, came roaring up the East Coast over the past 48 hours. Highways became impassable and air traffic was almost at a standstill, stranding thousands of holiday travelers. The snow started falling in my New Hampshire community about 4 p.m. yesterday and accumulated to about 10 inches overnight, far from the two feet that buried some areas to the south. I shoveled out late this morning while a light snow was still falling, but it stopped shortly after and the sun came out, but the temperature was falling rapidly.

As I write this, it's 14 degrees with dangerously high winds. The wind is causing me some concern, because a power outage at these temperatures, if prolonged, could have serious consequences. Last February, winds took out power for 68 hours, but fortunately temperatures were above normal at that time. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Christmas Round 2

December 25, 2010 — Well, I thought Christmas was over for me after last weekend, but I got an invitation to share Christmas Eve with Sheila and family, a Christmas buffet on Christmas morning at Kathy's, and Christmas dinner with Steve and family. I accepted all three invitations, even though they were spread out over 100 miles. Fortunately, the weather was good throughout the holiday weekend.

I think I've finally had enough Christmas, although every minute of it was immensely enjoyable. You can see photos and videos of my second round of Christmas activities at this link:

http://www.linwoodstreet.com/christmas10part2/