A Movie, a Garden, a Play and a Game

Other than work, that is pretty much it for the last few days.

The movie: Crash, the academy award winner. It is very hard to watch because everything that happens is so awful, but it is very tightly directed and very strongly acted. And very much worth it. The story of race relations? Reallly the story of paranoia, with everyone afraid of everyone else: the Mexicans, the Blacks, the Persians (whom everyone thinks are Arab), the Asians. Everyone is there but the Jews. And out of their fear (sometime the result of past experience; sometimes the result of who knows what?), they do awful things to each other. And, everything they do affects everyone else, but they are all connected. A difficult movie. Definitely hyperbolic. But with more than enough truth to make it worthwhile.

The Garden: The Washington Arboretum, where the azaleas as all beginning to come out. Give it one more week, and go.

The Play: Bal Masque, the story of three couples who attended Truman Capote's 1966 Black and White Ball to celebrate the success of In Cold Blood. It takes place the night of the ball, after the party breaks up. And no one comes out of the experience whole.

Capote is never on stage, but he is the lead character, because he is like a puppeteer, selecting his friends, and manipulating them even when he is not physicaly present. Marriages will break up, self esteem will vanish, nothing will be the same.

The actors are to a person excellent; and Richard Greenberg, the playwright gives them his usual extraordinarily clever dialogue. He is a master.

Any shortcomings? Yes, the play ends with a short third act that seems not well thought out. Two of the husbands wind up on a park bench in the pre-dawn hours and discover that they are better off in a physical relationship with each other than they are with their wives.

The other Greenberg play that I saw, Take Me Out, was about a gay baseball player. So, I guess this is Greenberg's thing. Not quite forgiveable, but he is so talented that it can at least be overlooked.

And the game: Tonight's final Washington Capitals game, where they beat Atlanta 6-4, and ended a season with a very poor record, but which gave everyone much hope for the future.