26 Miles – bravo!

We had the good fortune of catching  ’26 Miles’ last Friday evening before the show came to an end on Sunday.  Now, I’ll be the first to confess that I’m usually not a big fan of the theatre and plays–I’ll go, but usually after a lot of prodding and some bribing.  So, when my girlfriend proclaimed some weeks ago that we’re going to this, I reluctantly agreed, being the good girlfriend that I am.  I knew next to nothing about the play except for a short synopsis that I read–some coming-of-age bullshit.  The only thing that kept my interest up was the fact that it was written by a Pulitzer Prize finalist, Quiara Hude and directed by a gay director, Kent Gash.

So with my skepticism in check, we hurriedly walked our way over to the Alliance Theatre at the Woodruff Arts Center as the sky was looking rather ominous and the wind kicked up a few notches.  Once we entered, the attendant directed us through the building, back out the other door, and through a side door that lead 2 flights of stairs down into the basement, also known as the Hertz Stage.  We overheard our usher telling a group of concerned patrons that “we’re in the safest part of the building, should the impending storm hit us”….oh, that’s always nice to know.  The small theatre was adequate but really, nothing special.  The stadium-style theatre had rows of hard plastic chairs and there were no assigned seats.  For smaller intimate venues like this one, I personally prefer the 7 Stages in Little Five Points…but that’s just me.

Ok, I digressed…the play was surprisingly entertaining and well-acted and I found myself absorbed in it for the whole 1 hr, 40 min without any moments of daydreaming or catnapping, and that’s saying something.  The subject matter of family, love, and self-identity was easy to empathize with, and I thought each actor did a tremendous job in his/her depiction of each role.  I may go so far as to say this play might be the turning point in my whole perception of the theatre.  My only regret is that I didn’t see it sooner and I missed out on my opportunity to share my enthusiasm with others.