The fear of lint

I googled a bit to find the official word, if such exists, but I couldn't find it.

Tonight my wife and I went to see a performance of Oscar Wilde's 'The Importance of being Earnest'. She emailed me a fortnight or so ago when I was in the Philippines, wondering if I'd be back in time. Given that it's almost impossible to accurately predict whether the work will be done to the customers satisfaction or not I had to make the unsatisfactory reply that it was best to delay a little.

A few days later and it seemed likely; a few more and it became a lever. 'Sorry boss, I have to be back in the US; my wife and I have theatre tickets'.

So off we set tonight, to the Herberger Theatre[^] just up the road from Symphony Hall.

I have to record that it was both good and disappointing. The disappointment was that it was performed by a mostly British cast so the accents sounded right. I'd been almost looking forward to a second layer of comedy; listening to American actors trying to do the accents.

Ok, that's the flippant view. It was an immensely enjoyable performance that had us laughing most of the way. It did prove that I don't yet know enough of American politics to be trusted with the vote; in the scene where Lady Bracknell inquires into Jack's politics and he answers 'I'm a liberal' the audience laughed in a way that I don't quite understand.

Good stuff and quite the best live performance I've ever seen (I've seen the play performed more than thrice).

I'm going to resist the temptation to compare it to this film[^] though I do note that the bloke who played Jack in the movie was the father of tonights Lady Bracknell. 'Nuff said...

Whilst standing in the foyer just before the doors were flung open to an eager audience we were people watching. There were two thirty something guys, perhaps a trifle overweight, dressed up in dinner jackets, standing by the wall. Every few seconds one or the other would flick at his lapel and examine it minutely in the manner of a man removing lint. It was quite the performance especially as every so often one would turn and let the other inspect the back of his dinner jacket!