SpontReNEE'ity and "The Matchmaker": Fun Girls' Night Out

My friend Renee' is the quintessential funmaker. A true icon of spontaneous get-togethers that make for great memories. The latest one involving the two of us happened last night. She called the previous evening and asked if I'd like to go with her to see Thornton Wilder's "The Matchmaker." It was playing at CenterStage and the tickets were free.

Paul and the kids said it'd be fine with them, that someone would be here with Joel.

Thornton Wilder is my favorite playwright, no apologies to Shakespeare. "Our Town" takes the prize for best in show, if you ask me, so I was game for this one. Not that I'm an expert on plays. I'm not. I have attended very few, mostly because my husband can't stand theatre with all its silliness and planned outbursts of song by men in tights.

Anyway, I digress. I did enough quick research to find this play would entertain me without me feeling morally corrupted. It's about vice and virtue, finding love, making adventures, and swapping identities in the midst of it all.

The acting was terrific, costumes brilliant, scenery engaging, plot delightfully predictable. Best of all were the monologues to the audience. Par excellente. I don't have the playbill in front of me, but my favorite actor was an older guy playing Horace's assistant. If ever someone could evoke laughs by merely raising his eyebrows, it is he. One of the main characters was played by a guy who reminds me of Josh Harris. Now that's funny. His sidekick pronounces the moral of the play at the end, in a monologue, telling the audience that life is best with a healthy mix of sittin' around at home and yet havin' plenty of adventure. Adventure is something you find yourself in the middle of and say, "How did I get mixed up in this?" and yet when you're sittin' at home wishin' for adventure, you need to get out and try one. See what you get mixed up in and how good it can make you feel.

That's what Renee' does for me. She calls when it's been so long since I had an adventure that I've started to lose my sense of spontaneity. I think I'll start calling her "spontReNEE'ity." (Okay, that was really corny.)

The tickets were free through freefallbaltimore.com. If you want to see "The Matchmaker" free, you've got to be spontaneous, as in (I think) the last showings are tomorrow at 2 and Sunday at 2. But check it out in the Events section of http://www.freefallbaltimore.com/.

Have yourself an adventure.