rave party

Neither of us had seen A Streetcar Named Desire in any form (film, stage, or read on parchment) prior to last night's show; we both had a passing familiarity with the DuBois sisters and Stanley Kowalski. One of the finer points put forth by X, as we rode the Metro home, was that there's no real need to see it in any other iteration; the quality last night laid a perfect vision for how the characters should be brought to life. I know that seems unfair to say being that we have nothing to judge it against but follow along with her reasoning. Blanche and Stanley must be horribly difficult characters to bring to life without going overboard. Both show sides of personality that change drastically depending on who they are with or what state of mind they are experiencing; both could also be overacted, and no doubt have over the years, and that would make the 3:15 show almost unwatchable. Even though we expected Blanchett to be good she was better than imagined. About halfway through the first act I was also convinced that Joel Edgerton, as Stanley, was the equal of Cate. I thought he perfectly played the myriad of emotional personalities one would expect from the character - without going into hysterics. I'm going to guess, perhaps against all sense, that Brando overacted. (WaPo review here)

The show was our first time in the Eisenhower Theatre at the Kennedy Center and I must say I was quite pleased. The seats are very nice, there's loads of leg room (for a theatre), the acoustics were excellent, and the temp just right. I know, these seem like small things but they all bother me if the don't fall into place - at least rudimentarily.

The Library has been slow for the most part today. Not a lot of tourists as everyone is saving up travel time for Thanksgiving and Christmas. The weather, overcast with light rain, is probably keeping some of the locals away.

We have a dinner get together tonight with folks only 'known' as other parents of students at H's school; always an interesting mission when you don't actually know anyone via interaction. We'll see how the roasted vegetable, puttanesca sauce, and pesto lasagna goes over as our pot luck entree. If nothing else, it'll be the heaviest dish by weight.