Eric and I went out on a date last night. I won tickets to a show at the theatre, and then planned for us to enjoy a nice meal together before it. As often happens with us when we plan a night out, it was a bit of a disaster. This always seems to be the case when we put effort and energy in to something, one thing goes horribly wrong, and everything else just trickles behind it.
Last night it was the traffic. It took me nearly twice as long to get him at the office as I'd imagined (or Google Maps told me) and so we were late to the restaurant I wanted to go to and so we had to find somewhere else to eat. This was the part - traffic was bad all over the place and we really didn't have any other ideas. Driving around on an empty stomach while we're growing increasingly late for our show did not make a happy time for us. The longer we drove, the fewer options we had, and the shorter my temper grew. Eventually we came to a pizza place called Without Papers, just up the road from the theatre. We have eaten here before, and the food is pretty good, but we were at this point very short on time. We called in an ordered a pizza to pick up, then waited in the card for it to be ready. Waiting in the car only gave us more time to be anxious and to get flustered watching the clock. Eric gave them a call to see if we could push things along a bit, and she said they had it ready for us already. We ran in and pick it up (and I used the washroom) and we hurried to the theatre, eating on the way. Not exactly the romantic dinner I had planned, but it was tasty at least.
We found a parking lot close by. We honestly tried to pay for parking, but the machine was broken. We tried to pay for it by phone as well, but it took so long to do that the doors were theatre doors were closing before we could actually finish, so we chanced it until intermission....
The show we were seeing was The Great Gatsby. I have been so excited about this for months. We’ve seen two shows at Theatre Calgary, and really enjoyed them both. I am recently quite enthralled with this story, and have really enjoyed all the hype and things going on with it lately. I reread the book a while back, and loved it even more this time. I saw the movie and thought it was great, with just a few points of criticism. When I heard that Theatre Calgary was putting it on, I was dying to go. I looked online for tickets a few times, but kept forgetting to actually book them. Then one fateful day in the car, on the way home from work, they started talking about it on the radio. I have now won 3 things on the phone in for CBC Radio, and have it down to a science – of which I can reveal no details. But as soon as I heard my cue, I was ready to go with my phone and I won us the tickets! It was so exciting!
After ALL of that, unfortunately I have this to say: I am glad I did not have to pay money for these tickets.
It was an okay show, and maybe I could have enjoyed it under different circumstances, but I was not wowed (like I was with the Christmas Carol last year). The set and costumes were beautiful, but not quite as grand as I expected. The whole cast was maybe about 12 people and so the parties did not wow. The main part that really bothered me though was the cast of main characters. They just seemed a bit off and it threw the whole thing for a loop for me.
Nick was by far the strongest of the actors, and maybe at times too strong. Daisy was really enchanting and enjoyable to watch, but to listen to was a mess. Her Kentucky accent seemed to be a little too Western meets the very first British accent she picked up in acting class. Tom was too much and always sat with his legs speed wide Part which was both unnecessary and distracting. Jordan was really good too, but I think she might be the easier character to portray. Mertyl was actually my favourite to watch, she was dead on. The biggest disappointment though was Gatsby himself. One of my favourite characters in any story I know; he just fell flat. He did not portray the silent confidence the character needs to carry, there was absolutely no mystery and I just wish I'd seen more.
Now, don't get me wrong this was not a miserable play to watch, it was still a very nice evening. I know I just finished tearing it to piece one by one, but it really wasn't all bad. It's just that to me this story has two main elements that make it so great. 1. The characters 2. The scenery Meither were really present here, in a way that I feel like they should have or could have been able to do so nicely in the theatre.
Our night really turned out okay in the end. It was still nice to get out, still a nice show to watch, and the food was good. The last thing to put a damper on the evening was the parking ticket we came out to. Bummer! We really did try hard to avoid that.
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