An Evening of Thee-Aye-Terr
I had so much fun last night at “Culture Class in Americca”. I won a pair of tickets off the website, EdgeBoston.com, and expected the seats to be in the back row. Imagine my surprise when I walked up to the ticket booth and was given FRONT ROW aisle seats!
The theatre is one of the new ones that was added onto the existing Boston Center for the Arts in the South End. I believe it opened up last August. The space is very nice, though I must admit that before the curtain opened, the space was reminiscent of a giant lecture hall. There is some great woodwork/accents and lighting, but the carpet seemed more appropriate for a movie theatre than a live performance space. Still, the acoustics were great and once the curtain opened, the stage was quite large.
But the best part of the evening was the show. It’s basically three latino/chicano guys from southern California doing various choreographed scenes. Apparently, they go around the county interviewing people and then incorporate those conversations into these often hilarious skits. It was a very political (left-leaning) show that wasn’t afraid to address some pretty hefty isses in the country today (war, government, religion, gay rights, minorities, Catholic sex abuse, etc…). Yet they managed to do it in an entertaining and enlightening way.
They also did some local Boston research and interviews before bringing the show to the stage and incorporated a lesbian from Jamaica Plain, an Irish man sexually abused by a Catholic priest, a Rasta man from Cambridge, an elderly woman from Beacon Hill and a cop in the 1950’s South End (before the neighborhood was cleaned up by the gays). Though, I think the best characters were the transgendered former prostitute/current sex education leader from San Francisco, the stoned lesbians from Berkeley, and especially the Norweigan-American husband and Cuban-American wife from Miami (they choreographed this great scene where they talked over each other and finished each other’s sentences…hilarious).
Although it’s left-leaning, it’s not preachy. In fact, it’s very pro-American. Still, this uptight, preppy, bespectacled man in his 40’s sitting to my right was not finding it entertaining at all. Of course, that just made me laugh all the more.
I can’t recommend this show enough! All of you Boston readers should consider going (tickets range from $15 -$50).
After the show, Rich and I decided to walk home from the South End to the North End. What a beautiful evening it was! I would go so far as to say it was a perfect evening.
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Rich’s name is a regular feature on Adventures in Gastronomy these days. Things go well, yes?