silva rerum

All children, except one, grow up

Suffice it to say, today was a great deal more invig­or­at­ing than I had expec­ted. After a late start to the day (break­fast — or brunch, more appro­pri­ately), I headed off to the theatre to watch Despicable Me with L and A. Having bought our tick­ets (and then vacil­lat­ing whether or not we wanted to sit in a dark, empty theatre so as to save the best seats), we headed in and claimed our Real 3D glasses.

I’m hav­ing a bad, bad day
If you take it per­sonal, that’s okay
Watch, this is so fun to see
Huh, despic­able me.
– Pharrell, “Despicable Me”

The movie, by all means, was great. The story was fun, the humour well-​timed and (gosh darn it!) the orphan girls were so sweet! This makes me think that every­one ought to be forced to care for the young. Perhaps we’d have less vil­lains that way? Behind our seats, a whole row was reserved for (what we assumed) was a birth­day party. Hearing the chil­dren giggle with glee behind us wasn’t as annoy­ing as I might have ima­gined — it was quite fun to have them behind us! (Too bad L was thwapped on the head by an overzeal­ous child…)

After a rather long jour­ney to pro­cure a screen pro­tector for A’s (new!) BlackBerry Bold 9700, we wandered over to Chapters where we dis­covered, much to our mutual pleas­ure, that we could have din­ner together. We ate at The Boss (where I learned that I don’t actu­ally know how to order beef in Cantonese…how do you indic­ate how well-​cooked you want the meat?!).

Once full, we left the res­taur­ant to a rap­idly clos­ing mall. We wandered over to a water foun­tain out­side to won­der what we could do. I sug­ges­ted we take a stroll in Central Park (des­pite my great fears of creep­ers run­ning amok in the wooded areas). Off we went.

After dodging incom­ing golf balls from the pitch-​and-​putt and trekking through the verd­ant trees, we sat on a bench and noticed two people appar­ently shout­ing at one another. Perplexed, we gazed on to notice a man in a blue cape yelling to some people fur­ther away. Nosily, we inched closer and closer until…we noticed that it was a pro­duc­tion! Outside! In the park! For free!

Enthralled, we found ourselves sit­ting on the grass (and swat­ting away the copi­ous amounts of vam­piric mos­qui­toes) and try­ing to unravel the storyline. As it turns out, it was a pro­duc­tion of Neverland: Beginnings by Rainforest Theatre, a small local com­pany. We watched with glee as Peter Pan was nearly wed­ded to the daugh­ter of the pir­ate king and as we learned how Captain Hook gained (lost?) his eponym­ous append­age. With subtle amuse­ment, we gazed on as one over­ex­cited child-​spectator inched closer and closer to the act­ors until he was actu­ally sit­ting within the action, gaz­ing upward and ask­ing, “Can I see that?!”

I found it so magical that serendip­ity (and, admit­tedly, a reluct­ance to return home to do read­ings for ENGL 468) led us to a the­at­rical pro­duc­tion in the ancient pulse of germ and birth. I thought I had encountered some­thing out of Midsummer Night’s Dream! (But of course not. My appoint­ment to see Henry V is this Friday.)

It is some indic­a­tion of my great love for the theatre but I adored the way the act­ors inter­ac­ted with the audi­ence and with their sur­round­ings. With little more than some light cos­tum­ing, they cre­ated a world into which their children-​spectators could be drawn by sheer cha­risma. And what is a more nat­ural set­ting for a the­at­rical pro­duc­tion than the forest?

The play fin­ished and every­one dis­persed. We headed over to P’s house to play poker briefly before I was summoned home with great dis­pleas­ure at my waywardness.

And I could wish my days to be bound each to each with such won­der, joy and serendipity.