After a quiet morning of grooming (we both had a shampoo and blow dry, although not in the same establishment) Bao and I saw a matinee performance of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menangerie, starring Seana McKenna as Amanda Wingfield and Steven Sutcliffe (who could easily turn out to be the next Tom Cruise) as Tom.
Again, I was amazed at the scintillating quality of the production. After all, Stratford isn't what you'd call a metropolis. It's barely a dot on the map. Who would have dreamed that the theatre would be so fantastically good? Maybe it's because so much of the community is involved: Margo (of Margo's Dog Grooming, who did Bao's hair) has a daughter in Oliver! and Christopher Schmidt (of Century Salon, who did mine) had an autographed photo of Seana McKenna and Lucy Peacock (also his clients) hanging in the salon.
Seana McKenna was amazing. She had Amanda Wingfield's Missouri accent down pat. My late husband's mother was from St. Louis, and if I closed my eyes, it was like hearing her voice again. I suppose any decent actor can imitate a southern accent, but this wasn't merely generic; this was pure St. Louis. And Steven Sutcliffe -- if I was forty years younger, I would have been waiting breathlessly outside the stage door!
This is our last day here, and I can't believe I still haven't told you about the swans. There are about 30 pairs of swans, and they're a very big deal, here. They're also very big, which is why you're seeing one photo of Bao and another of the swans. Sometimes the swans attack dogs, and the dogs fight back, so lots of dogs wear muzzles when they're being walked along the river.
Someone brought the original pair of swans to Stratford from Florida, thinking they'd jazz up the river. They do. There are signs all over the place exhorting you to feed the swans corn, or greens, but not bread. Apparently, bread gets stuck in their throats and they choke on it.
There are ducks, too. And Canadian geese. And black squirrels. Bao finds it all a bit overwhelming, and prefers the theatre.