Tonight, the choice was between the Valley - play, "A Midsummer's Night Dream", and dinner with the cult. I was all for the cult, there was going to be dinner, blessings, then after music and dancing, shit, I wanted the cult...
...the boy did too, but his friend, well, he was a bit leery. And so liberal democracy is thwarted yet again by the conservatives...
We end up driving into the valley - "A Midsummer's Night Dream", playing at the Vallican Whole. We're optimistic, after last night's "WTF" we're pretty excited about how much more "WTF" we'll get here.
It's community theatre. Everyone in the audience - maybe 100 people - they're related to - brother, sister, mother, son, daughter, father, husband, mother, wife - somehow to a member - or several - of the cast. And there's a lot of "in" jokes, laughter at things we wouldn't get, we're not in with, we don't know the community.
It's a bit of a buy in. A lot of a buy in. Like with - if you're following this from Calgary - "Front Row Centre" Players - the people who did the "Big" musicals again at the Pumphouse Theater. The productions - they were enthusiastic, but amateurs. The same. But here, the audience goes wild. It's great.
And some of the performances - well, they're worth it. And others - well,...but the enthusiasm, the general appreciation from the community, it overrides all tastes and prejudice.
The first act ends, go outside, have a cigarette, chat to a couple of the locals, it's amusing, this, funny, we're laughing at the cultural disparities, the fact that such a family oriented production has such obvious product references to the local currency.
Try this in Calgary. Even with liquor. The boy knows, it wouldn't fly. You'd be getting letters to the editor, unwanted features in the papers, arrested, it would be "NO".
Here they're all in on the joke. The joke, well, you know it if you're reading this, and if you don't I won't explain. The sun is going down, the play ends, the theatre is roused to ridiculous applause - and, were there a green room, we'd be staying - there's interest, there's beauty and personality, this would be the best "Green Room" in the country, I'm sure, but there isn't and the boys are hungry, want to return to the hostel to eat and then go out clubbing so we drive off into the sunset, 30 minutes or so back to Nelson, the long shadows of evening promising further adventures. I love this place.