Saturday Night Out In Santa Fe

Last night, Janie and Joa treated us to a night out in Santa Fe. A pretty substantial thunderstorm (especially at their place, a couple miles away) led off the evening, which started at the Italian restaurant Andiamo. A wonderful meal was had by all, and we had a nice, leisurely time catching up and sharing stories.

Then, off to El Museo Cultural for a play put on by Red Thread Collective — Aucassin and Nicolette (scroll down).

The setting reminded me a great deal of a place where I first saw Cyrano de Bergerac probably about 20 years ago on one of the "forced culture" outings with my parents. El Museo couldn't have seated more than about 100 people, and you were never more than eight or so rows away from the action. Occasionally, actors would exit and enter down the aisles, and during one particularly absurd scene, they were lobbing foam "fruit" out at us, expecting us to return it. The play's an adaptation of a Medieval love story, occasionally a musical, and it was generally agreed that it was at its strongest when it really didn't take itself too seriously — the actors got to have some fun with it all, and the audience came along for the ride.

But it was a really good time. It's been a long time since we've been to see an actual play — Titus Andronicus in Halifax, Nova Scotia about six years back at their Shakespeare by the Sea, a pretty intense experience. Even with all the plays I saw as a part of the "forced culture," continuing on into outings in high school, and even into a drama class that we both wound up in at college, I still forget that there's just something special about live theater, the immediacy, especially in such an intimate setting.