Wednesday was a comedy of errors and great theater, as John and Beverly and I met up with Margaret Pickett, arriving from eastern Massachusetts. It had all been carefully planned for months, except for the Shanks’ negotiating an offer on their house from the opposite end of the state and my mis-reading the starting time on the performance at Shakespeare and Company. The kind of day that would be a disaster among acquaintances, but was forgivable complications among friends.

When we finally met up at the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, we enjoyed a wonderful dinner of lamb burgers and the “Hugo,” a famed house cocktail combining, gin, liqueur and wine. In no way should our late arrival at Shakespeare and Company be blamed on this cocktail.

I had assumed we would be early arriving at 7:40, but the performance began at 7:30, so we were spirited to an inconspicuous entry to sneak in during the first scene change.

The theater was small and intimate, actors within touching distance of the front row. The room could not have held more than 250 people in 10 rows. Each performer brought understated passion to their characters, but the virtuoso was Nehassaiu deGannes as Esther Mills, who evoked pathos most with her eyes, sometimes in open wonder, sometimes in subdued disappointment.

The story centers on Esther’s match-making correspondence with George Armstrong, a canal-worker in Panama, and her flirtation with with Mr. Marks, the cloth merchant, engaged to a Rumanian woman he has not seen. Yet Esther’s relationships with three women, her landlady, a rich client and a prostitute, reveal the tenderness and depth of her character. The differences of race, class and personal morality among these women are spanned by Esther’s compassion and generosity.  Her heart-breaking relationship with George is balanced by the kindness and loyalty of her female friendships. You can see these characters in the vivid production shots at:

http://www.shakespeare.org/shows/2017/intimate-apparel/media

 

Nehassaiu deGannes and MaConnia Chesser.   Photo: Stratton McCrady.

We were touched by these performances and the social significance of this story of the ragtime era, early twentieth-century New York City.

Managed to negotiate the route back to Vacation Village by 11 p.m.