The trick, of course, is to invite the boy to a play, confirm a time to pick him up and then disconnect the call.
Don't answer when he calls back. He's just looking for more information, and the more information you provide, the less likely he'll be to attend.
And so you build suspense.
The play, tonight, was "L'EFFET DE SERGE" at the Grand, the last on my season tickets. I'll be renewing....
Now the Grand has lost it's partner, The Velvet Lounge, who handled the food/drink side of the theater. It was hard, really, to see how they made it, the before and after theatre crowd aren't enough to support a business that has bills 365 days a year and shows perhaps only 50. And the position of the bar, well, chances are if you weren't seeing a play you weren't popping in for a drink. Add to these handicaps the fact that if you think restaurants are bitchy and political atmospheres, what with all the out of work actors and writers and such, imagine what it's like when the restaurant opens next to the theater, with it's employed and presumably successful actors and writers and such.
It boggles the mind.
And so the boy and I are there, in the lonely empty space occupied formerly occupied by the velvet lounge, now subcontracted to some anonymous catering company that takes the liberty of charging me $8.50 for a 3 oz. glass of wine.
All the bitchiness and politics aside, I miss the Velvet.
It's a good space, this, and I hope they find a way to make some sort of restaurant/theater partnership work. But it won't be easy...
The play, "Experimental Theatre" - well, it leaves us at a loss. Not good or bad at a loss, just taking some time to digest. It's the sum of ordinary and peculiar events in the life of Serge, part of an ongoing look into people's lives as conceived by Philippe Quesne of Vivarium Studio. It's curious, thought provoking, unconventional, these are good things.
Links: La mélancolie des dragons & La mélancolie des dragons - his next production.