Allegiance

Allegiance
Musical by Jay Kuo, Lorenzo Thione, and Marc Acito

Rebecca told her Facebook friends that she was going to see the musical, Allegiance, tonight, and she invited anyone to join us.  A faint hope since we are on the countdown to the most wonderful holiday of the year, and everyone is overloaded with projects to finish.

 Fay McCaulder Strong picked Rebecca up on her invitation, and met us at the theatre.  And when the handibus had picked Kelvin up, the two women sat for an hour in the centre of Eau Claire Market and caught up on the past 30 years -- which meant there was a lot of talking going on.

I listened in for a while and later took a walk around the market, since I have been denying myself the pleasure of daily walks lately.  I passed the shops and entertained myself by memorizing the names of the stores as I would walk by them: The Oil and Vinegar Bar, Iphix, The Card Shop, The Son of Pharaoh, The Good Earth, Sumo.  Rebecca, Kelvin and I had tried to get sushi at Suma on a previous visit but we  had come before they opened.  Probably this would have been a more hospitable venue for Faye and Rebecca, but their conversation was so deep that food was not on the horizon for them.

Christmas.  The best of times to pick up with old friends.  A joy for both of these women tonight.

And on the way home Rebecca and I spoke with each other about the musical.  Disappointing, she said, that we will only have each other to talk to about this. And she said she wanted to buy the sound track, the music was so lovely.

Most plots take advantage of stereotypes to move the plot along and to set out characters so that later more nuanced meanings can be added.  The show was good for othat: a brother and sister as the protagonists, a single mother, intergenerational conflict, politicans in difficult circumstances, a war, internment camps, binary politics that provoke family disruption.

And lots of dancing and lyrical music.  A lovely evening.

Arta