"Just like her"

Yesterday I ran into a former student - literally, as it was Wednesday and so I was running behind Carol, as usual, but outside rather than around the gym. Sometimes Carol takes her class around Queen's Park, where she and the real runners speed ahead, and the feeble few, like me, totter around behind, taking short cuts and stopping to pant. So I was puttering along when I ran into Pearl, who was in my Ryerson class maybe 8 years ago; we've said hello a few times since. She said, "I'm off to Barcelona on the weekend and know from your blog that you were there recently. Any recommendations?"

It's an odd thing to run into a blog follower, who knows almost as much about my life as I do. I was able to give her a tip or two, the Miro Museum and the others in that grand park, but also, because I am a shallow person, that she should go nuts at Zara because it's Spanish and cheaper and better than here. And then, red-faced and sweaty, I jogged on.

Tuesday night, a sad spectacle - fifty damn good actresses in "Tout Comme Elle," a floaty play that certainly makes you think about that most complex of relationships, mothers and daughters. Yes, fifty of the best actresses in Canada, some of them, like Fiona Reid, Barbara Gordon and Kyra Harper, old friends, in a Luminato play out of Quebec. I rode my bike down, not realizing it was opening night, but it was and I immediately ran into friends, theatre people whose daughter is beginning her career in this play and who offered me comps. There were many comps; the play is not selling, despite the cast.

And though there are moving moments, I can see why - it's a poetic, balletic, unfocussed 90 minutes with a great deal of Greek tragedy chorus work and a lot of time spent staring out at the audience. I sat next to a young engineer whose girlfriend is in the show, also just starting out, her first professional part. For young actors, it must be invaluable to work with such pros. But for the pros - women who have spent decades on the stage - to be marching about in wierd costumes speaking in unison, with a few short lines of their own - it made me profoundly sad.

It made me profoundly glad I now make my living doing something else.