SERIOUSLY intense

so tonight we headed to the theater to see the Asolo production of Grapes of Wrath...

we stopped for dinner at Captain Brian's Fish Market (yes it is) and Restaurant where we have been twice before and really enjoyed the very fresh fish- the place is not at all fancy just good food! Here were the specials tonight- (sorry about the flash)

we got to the theater a bit early which turned out to be really nice because we had time to look at a display I might otherwise have missed about risk taking- see more below- 

so as you entered the lobby - a bit on the side was this sign and then a board where people had posted their notes-

now some of these (in my judgment) are not BIG risks but some are stupendously big risks and here are some I noticed-

"finally gave my heart" (I was so touched by that one- how joyful to see that post)  and the one next to it was a knock your socks off  "gave my husband a kidney he had given his to his brother" - and the row continued with "married the poorest guy in town 61 years ago, no regrets!"  these were fabulous sharings!!

the staging was fabulous- amazingly depicting the long and arduous journey the family took from OK to CA-

starring a cast of dozens of people!

a bit of history on the dust bowl from the program-

some blurbs about the works of Steinbeck- which have been adapted for stage and screen-

so here is my thumbnail review-

this play was excellent and it was intense - there was not one upbeat moment in the entire two hours plus-these people had only crappy bad things happen to them - a whole bunch of people die along the way and really bad people do really bad things to these poor down and out folks who are just trying to get some work- that's all they want is a chance to work and feed their families- seriously intense and depressing... although excellently acted and incredibly staged (rivers run, it really rains, people get buried, camp fires are lit) but WOW - what a downer...

and here's the thing- it was even more of a downer because decades later we still have the same issues- people just wanting to work to feed their families and getting nowhere---

and so I will leave you with this-

And remember to get out there and vote! The only way we can change things is to raise our voices through our votes!