Wednesday -- to The Beard of Avon

Hot, stressful day, followed by a trip to the Publick Theatre on the bannks of the Charles to see Amy Freed's The Beard of Avon. June, Monica, Will, Robert W and I had a thrown-together-at-the-last-minute picnic stageside before the show. The Publick offered freebies to the theatre community, and there were familiar faces in the audience. Beautiful night. Mosquitos not too bad. I really enjoyed the show-- I was in the mood to go either way: I'm rather prickly about riffs on The Bard. (I do think the oft-repeated Sausage Joke could be improved upon: surely there is an equally ancient and awful bit of comic business to use which is at least remotely funny?) But this one, like Shakespeare in Love, is deft and witty. Both these comedies gain by confining themselves to Young Will, when all we need concede is that the figure we are invited to laugh at might possibly grow into the author who still awes us. I particularly enjoyed seeing Gabriel Kuttner, fellow-player in "Talking To Terrorists", as Will. His stage-struck poetic bumpkin grows as we watch.