Hooray for you, Mari Sasano.

I went to see it opening night, actually. But lil’ Henry has been kind of preoccupying!

Anyhow, Nathan is completely brilliant in this. Sweet, nice Nathan… he completely scared the pants off me! He entirely inhabits Daniel MacIvor’s script; no mean task considering the number of characters: a teenage boy who lived next door to another teenage boy who murdered his father, the father, a bickering couple, an alcoholic screenwriter, and so on.

Today is the last night of the show, but boy– I still think about it and get scared every time.

Persians VS the Men of Chippendales!

Frankenstein:beautiful music, gorgeously stylized performances and sets.

Humanity and No (at Saskatoon’s PersphoneTheatre): absurdism done up nicely, directed by Michael Scholar Jr. The highlight? When the man across the aisle shouted, “Do it!” to the cast, instructing them to yank the curtain down.

We drove out to Trina’s mom’s place outside of Saskatoon. She keeps sheep and goats, but one of the baby lambs, Sam, was rejected by his mom so he was kept inside. Baby lamb! In diapers! It was fun feeding them (I got to BOTTLE FEED one of them!) and moving them around so the barn could be cleaned. Then, delicious prairie cuisine and a couple of really great sleeps. Fun!

We tried to get a dinner after they play at Bistro Praha for a pork hock and crepe Nadia. But they were packed! It would’ve been about an hour wait. So, slightly crestfallen, we started walking looking for somewhere else that would satisfy our appetite for something European and meaty.

I’d always wondered what La Table de Renoir was like. Located in the old Rigoletto’s space, it’s an old-school French place which we knew must be good because the servers were a couple of old dudes, rather than hot chicks. Hot chicks mean bad food and bad service. Plus the restaurant assumes you’re a fool.

No such thing here. Starting with escargot (buttery! garlicky!), we moved onto our salads. I had a tasty Nicoise, built up high on my plate. I hate it when starter salads threaten to spoil your appetite for the entree, but this was just right.

Paul ordered duck with caramelized figs– delicious! And mine was a half rack of lamb. A whole rack is enormous. I wonder who manages to eat that much? In any case, it was perfect, medium-rare and so tasty in balsamic vinegar. Green beans and mashed potatoes were served on the side.

I had a tarte tatin and Paul of course had creme brulee for dessert. My tarte was great, but the creme brulee was superlative, custardy and not over-sweetened and served warm. I hate a warm brulee on top of a cold creme.

It was a little pricey, but it’s definitely on our list of revisitations. We were never hurried along, and our old dude server was charming and efficient. It would also make a great post-theatre dessert and drinks place, since it’s quiet and out of the way and near the Citadel. Yum!

It’s a French play that was translated by the super-genius Mieko Ouchi.

Jeremy is a boy who is born with webbed feet and hands. His parents are shocked, but love him dearly as he develops unusual swimming ability. But as he grows up, he starts yearning for something more than the community pool, and with great difficultly, his parents let him swim away into the ocean.

Simple, isn’t it? But it’s so sweet. Meant to be a childrens’ play, I think lots of parents are going to get a little teary as the Fishers realize that the best thing for their son is to let him go. For the kids, though, it’s fun and funny with a good amount of physical humour and fantastic elements.

Dammit, I’m gonna love my puppy so much.