Fantastic, as Barrowman would say, fantastic, and fantastic...

Yeterday at the Stratford Festival:

• I heard a talk by Marjourie Garber called Profiling Shakespeare, which is, by no coincidence, the title of her latest book. I intend to read it.
  
  
• Went to Cabaret. What use is sitting/Alone in your room.... And excellent performance of what must be the most depressing musical ever written.
  
  
• Saw Hamlet, with Ben Carlson as Hamlet, Scott Wentworth as Caludius (I've always loved his work), and Geraint Wyn Davis as Polonius.

Today:

• Breakfast in St. Jacob's - a fabulous brunch at the Stone Crock Restaurant, after a wonderful drive through the picturesque farmland of southern Ontario.
  
  
• Two one-act plays: Hughie by Eugene O'Neill, and Krapp's Last Tape by Samuel Beckett, both starring Brian Dennehy. Hughie made me feel as if I was seeing a scene from Frank Miller's Sin City on stage.
  
  
• An informal keynote address that was in fact a question and answer session in the Tom Patterson Theatre, with Geraint Wyn Davies and the audience asking the questions and F. Murray Abraham answering them - questions about the importance of classical theatre. Abraham started out by saying that people no longer believe what they read or hear - that we have no faith in politicians or the press, and that live theatre gives us a truth we can believe even if it is ephemeral. My words, not his.
  
  He made it clear he was speaking as an American he talked about politics - and, interestingly, most of the people who asked questions were Americans. At one point he talked about the American civil war, the blues and the greys, and how horribly divisive it was; and now they talk about red states and blue states, just as divisive. He suggested that Canada must have its own similar divisions. My mind boggled at the scope of the question: ours is so very unlike anything in the American experience, so much more historical primary - thinking of the rift between Quebec and the rest of Canada - though I suppose I could talk about east/west divisions, too. It's never simple.
  
  I had many thoughts on the many interesting topics raised here, and took many notes. I was interested in Abraham's comments on his own experience: he was raised in El Paso, ran with gangs, went to jail - but a wise teacher lured him into theatre and transformed his life. Of course he believes in the transformative power of theatre, when it so thoroughly shaped his own life. A very interesting man.