Elwood P. Dowd

Andrew called me at my office this afternoon, and wanted to know whether I felt like doing something this evening after work.

“Like what?” I asked him

“Like see ‘Harvey’, as we thought about doing last weekend” he answered. Andrew was referring to the fact that he and I and our landlady had planned to catch a performance of “Harvey” last weekend—until our landlady had learned that word-of-mouth about the production, within the Twin Cities theater community, was decidedly negative.

“How will we get home?” I asked him. I was referring to the fact that bus service home would have ended hours before the conclusion of a performance of “Harvey”.

“We can catch a ride home with my Mom and Dad” was his response. Andrew was referring to the fact that, this being Friday night, his parents would be in town for Friday night’s subscription concert by the Minnesota Orchestra.

“Let’s do it” was my answer.

So Andrew called his parents (Andrew’s Mom and Dad were home this afternoon; his father had taken the day off) to make sure that they were planning to attend tonight’s Minnesota Orchestra subscription concert (which they were, since this is the final week of the season).

In fact, Andrew’s parents had been planning to drive into town very early and to have dinner downtown before the concert, owing to a major downtown bicycle event that would require several street closings and play havoc with downtown traffic for several hours in the late afternoon and early evening.

The result: Andrew and I went to see “Harvey” tonight—plus we had a wonderful dinner before the show.

We ate dinner with Andrew’s parents at an exceptional seafood restaurant. It was a very elegant and very fashionable establishment, with fine silver, fine glassware, fine cutlery, fine linen, and stately but understated décor. It was a magnificent restaurant.

The menu offered nothing but the freshest seafood, flown daily to Minneapolis. The menu changes literally each day, depending upon that day’s availability.

We ordered Oysters Rockefeller, followed by Rainbow Trout accompanied by sour cream-and-onion mashed potatoes and steamed asparagus with Hollandaise Sauce. For dessert, we ordered Crème Brulee.

It was a superb dinner.

After dinner, Andrew and I headed over to Theater In The Round for a 7:30 p.m. curtain, while Andrew’s parents walked to Orchestra Hall for the 8:00 p.m. concert. Both performances were scheduled to conclude at roughly the same time, 9:45 p.m., so we did not have to worry about anyone having to wait when it was time for us all to meet up again and head home.

I’m glad Andrew and I saw “Harvey”. Neither of us had seen the play before—or even the film version, for that matter.

The play is very old-fashioned, and very predictable, but for all that it remains an enjoyable and durable vehicle, and I can understand why “Harvey” is periodically revived by professional companies.

“Harvey” is a play that lends itself particularly well to amateur performance, because its characters are all “types” rather than individuals, and therefore lie well within the talents of amateur performers. “Harvey” is, I understand, one of the most frequently-performed plays by high schools and amateur theatrical societies, and this is easily accounted for.

The Theater In The Round production was OK. There was a little over-acting, and a little under-acting, and some of the jokes and some of the situations were staged a little too broadly and a little too obviously, but the material came through, all in all. It was not a bad way to spend a Friday night.

Tomorrow Andrew and I are going to go over to his parents’ house to do some yard work and wash the cars and get a “dog fix”.

On Sunday, we will be doing the “theater day” we had planned but cancelled last weekend, but with some modifications to our original plans.

We will make it an “1890’s Britain” day, and attend two plays about events, imaginary and otherwise, from that time and place.

First, we will catch the Sunday matinee at Park Square Theater of “Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure”. In the evening, we will catch “The Secret Fall Of Constance Wilde” at the Guthrie Theater. Between shows, we will maintain the chosen theme of the day by having dinner at a British restaurant downtown. Our landlady will join us for this “theater day”, and so will Andrew’s parents.

It should be fun.