Sunday, February 16, 2020

My Weekend Review

This past weekend my husband purchased tickets to the Folger Shakespeare Theater in Washington, DC. We could not get good reservations at any of the better restaurants because it was Valentine's Eve and that meant you had to make your reservations months in advance. We instead ate at a cozy pub called the Hawk and Dove. It bills its theme as an intelligent place to argue politics since they are fairly close to the Capital/Congress. There were icons of selected Presidents on one wall, but not any of the recent ones. I ordered rib eye (since we no longer cook red meat at home) and it was melt-in-your-mouth delicious. I also ordered a nice Bourbon cocktail as that is the only thing I drink in a "cozy pub." Hubby had a shrimp pasta scampi meal which he devoured.  I did not take photos, but it was all brown wood and coziness.  Our meal was at 6:10 which is early and thus the place was not crowded but not empty with just the right amount of subdued friendly noise.  For us country mice it was the perfect city experience.

I get anxious at these trips to the city because it is months between times using my Uber app and I had to update my credit card with them as well.  The app is much more friendly and intuitive than it used to be.  We drove to my daughter's house and decided to take a taxi to the restaurant from my daughter's house which cost $27 and the taxi was late picking us up!  We Ubered to the theater about 4 blocks up after the meal.  We Ubered to my daughter's home after the performance and that cost $17 and we only waited 5 minutes in the bitter cold at 10:30 P.M. for the ride to show!  The app asked if we were willing to share the ride and we would be picked up sooner.  With temps in the mid 20's F and a breeze, I was cold and quickly clicked yes.  We shared with a very quiet middle-aged African American woman who only offered a friendly comment when I wished her a safe ride home as we exited first.  We are only going to Uber in the future as my daughter advised.  Cheaper and faster!





As you can see above, we got there about 10 minutes early.  It is a small theater and filled rapidly.  The play we saw was The Merry Wives of Windsor.  I do like Shakespeare while hubby not so much.  This was a perfect compromise because it was set in the 1970s and absolutely hilarious.  The beatnik costumes and hairstyles and music brought back those years warmly.  The acting was superb with enough broad body comedy to keep the pace moving.  They tried to stick to the olde English with occasional 1970's terms thrown in.  Certainly shows how universal Shakespeare was and is. Reminded me I needed to do this more often as I am getting old.



We were very fortunate as there would be only a few more weeks to see plays in this theater.  There was a two-year remodeling project in the future.  I hope they keep the character of the original architecture based on the traditional theater of Shakespeare productions.  It was funded by oil baron Henry Folger and his wife and also has a world-class library attached.  The building opened in 1932.  If you are interested in the history you can go to this page.

In the next post I will talk about some shocking news I got the following day.

13 comments:

  1. It sounds like it was a wonderful time out on the town with your special Valentine. :-)

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  2. sounds like a great evening. my grandkids all use uber.

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  3. Beautiful theatre.
    Love seeing Shakespeare plays!

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  4. Sounds like a great experience all around.

    I've never used Uber but figured it'd be something I would use if ever needed.

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  5. A great outing for sure!

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  6. Quite the busy place over the years. It sounds like a good time -- cozy meal and the theater. And not too long in the cold.

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  7. It sounds like a fine version of the play. I once saw a Romeo and Juliet modernized, and liked it. The students that I took did not. I hold the opinion that kids are more conservative than adults in many ways.

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  8. The pub and the theater both sound like great experiences.

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  9. Oh ... you make me want to go back to Washington. Great place to visit. But I did notice your slip. You do like Shakespeare. But you don't like your hubby so much!?!

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  10. Merry Wives is indeed very funny, even when performed entirely in Shakespeare’s word. I’ve not seen a modern version of it but quite a number of original productions. The last one I saw at the RSC in Stratford had David Troughton as a very fat-suited Falstaff. It was hilarious.

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  11. Seeing such performances would be a dream! Yes, i agree they need to keep the ambiance.

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  12. That sounds like a delightful evening. I've missed being involved in theatre for too many years. I've seen fewer live performances of various kinds as I would have enjoyed, but life has a way sometimes of going in other directions.

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