A Life, Lived

Almond-crusted Pork Tenderloin with Dried Cranberry-Apple Sauce

On Sunday I was craving roasted Pork as I often do when the weather is cold. I decided to do this pork tenderloin recipe that I had found at Cooking Light. It appeared to have a crisp crust - which I like and the dried fruit sauce counded really good; the combination of sweet and savoury appealed to me. It was easy to make, everyone at dinner declared the recipe to be a 'keeper'. Unfortunately we knocked it back so quickly that I never got a pic! Enjoy

2 (1-pound) pork tenderloins
2 cups fresh breadcrumbs
4 tablespoons sliced almonds, finely chopped
1 tablespoon dried rosemary
1 teaspoon coarsely ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large egg whites, lightly beaten
Cooking spray
Dried Cranberry-Apple Sauce

Preheat oven to 425°.
Trim fat from pork. Combine breadcrumbs and next 4 ingredients (breadcrumbs through salt) in a shallow dish. Dip pork in egg whites; dredge in breadcrumb mixture. Place pork on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray. Bake pork at 425° for 30 minutes or until meat thermometer registers 160°. Cover with foil, and let stand 10 minutes. Cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Serve with Dried Cranberry-Apple Sauce.

Dried Cranberry-Apple Sauce

2 cups sweetened dried cranberries (such as Craisins)
1 1/2 cups boiling water
1/3 cup diced dried apple
1/4 cup raisins
2 tablespoon minced crystallized ginger
1/3 cup white wine vinegar
3 tablespoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
Dash of ground allspice
Dash of ground cinnamon
Dash of ground ginger
1/4 cup red plum or raspberry jam

Combine first 5 ingredients; cover fruit mixture, and let stand 30 minutes.
Combine vinegar and next 5 ingredients (vinegar through ground ginger) in a small saucepan; bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Add fruit mixture. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes. Stir in jam. Remove from heat; cool to room temperature.

Diet Update # 2

Well, as of this morning I have managed to shed 15 pounds. I imagine that I will plateau shortly and experience all of the joys that come from denying yourself regular trips to your favourute junk food haunts with no results!  *smile* For now however, it is all good.

Today I am wearing an outfit I purchased last fall but couldn't get into! For years I was buying new wardrobes that were a size 'up' it is so nice to do the opposite!

SOMA

Today's post is all about my favourite chocolate shop in Toronto. It is located in the distillery district and we were sure to stop in on Saturday when we were visiting the area. My mother had never been before and yesterday she was still raving about it!

The shop had moved into a much larger space since we had last been, obviously a sign of good things going on. Another sign is that it is consistently rated as the top chocolate shop in Toronto on a regular basis.

The new shop is about 30 feet from where the old one used to be located by the Blue Dot Gallery  (we discovered that the former space is now occupied by a smallish restaurant serving fascinating looking crepes - next time!). The picture on the right shows the entrance to the new space.

Soma makes some of the finest chocolates in Toronto (and, at $2 per truffle, some of the priciest too). The signature collection contains about 15 creative varieties, including balsamic vinegar, chai spice, or salted caramel. The cube collection contains 6 varieties: each truffle (both couverture and ganache filling) is made from a single origin chocolate (Tanzania, Venezuela, Madagascar...), with no other flavour added. All the chocolates are very smooth and very well balanced.

I decided that this was just the thing for a Valentine's gift.The only difficulty was deciding upon which ones to buy! Just looking at this picture of the display case will tell you why!

In addition to these treats, there are amazing packaged chocolates. ONe of my favourites was sadly not in stock on Saturday - the lightly salted toasted corn tumbled in creamy milk chocolate rolled in Mayan spice. Happily a good number of their tum,bled not collection was in stock so I get to try others. They also have a conderful selection of pre-packaged baked goods but these works or art aren't anything like Entemanns! I picked up some chocolate shortbread and a few of their Italian themed cookies which i can't wiat to try.

Soma is also the only chocolatier in Toronto to make chocolate straight from the beans; small batches are available from time to time. The chocolate making area is in a large space in the back of the shop with a wide expanse of glass wall, allowing you to watch the magic process. Obviously this must be a popular pastime because SOMA has set up bleacher type seating in front of the machine the grinds the cacao beans!

The joy of the single origin chocolate is that you can buy an assortment of the chocolates and have a tasting at home. On Saturday we purchased single-origin chocolate from Cuba, Venezuela, Tanzania, Santo Domingo, and Madagascar. It is fascinating to taste the difference that terroir makes (not unlike with wine)!

In addition to their own chocolate, Soma also offers a good selection of the finest chocolate  bars from around the world, with an emphasis on single-origin and estate chocolate. A number of the high-end Toronto restaurants have begun selling desserts made with SOMA chocolates at outrageous prices. I purchased a number of the solid bars at the shop and will make my own desserts, thank you very much :-)

Their hot chocolate shots are an explosion of taste -- not to be missed when you visit. I had never tried it before (even though the Toronto Star recently rated it the best hot chocolate in the city) and likely wouldn't have tried it on Saturday but mom was cold so she ordered one. After listening to her rave about it Paul and I knew that we needed one too. The hot chocolate was rich and thick, the flavour was intense with a hint of spicy heat. I've been told that it is similar to the flavour of good hot chocolate in Mexico. 

Finally, a small selection of delicious homemade ice-cream is available. Chocolate and vanilla ice creams are always there, and 4 other flavours revolve (rhubarb can sometimes be spotted!). The chocolate sorbet is itself a very special treat.

Here is what the local media is saying about this amazing shop:

Toronto Life

NOW Magazine

Downtown Home Life

The Distillery District

After we shoped up the storm at the St Lawrence Market we drove along Front Street until we reached Parliament. Turning right on Parliament we were soon at one of our favourite spots to spend an afternoon - the Distillery District.

Distillery Historic District

The Distillery District is a historic district to the east of the downtown core of Toronto, spanning 13 acres (52,000 square metres) and comprised of more than 40 heritage buildings and 10 streets.

This haven in the midst of the big city is North America’s best preserved collection of Victorian industrial architecture is located in this historic enclave in downtown Toronto. Formerly the Gooderham & Worts Distillery (founded in 1832), The Distillery has been developed as a centre for arts, culture and entertainment. It is filled with galleries, artist studios and workshops, boutiques, retail stores, restaurants, bars and cafés.

Location: Trinity and Mill Street in the Parliament and Front St. vicinity

How to get there: car (ample street parking and parking lots); TTC (72A, 172, A from Union Station)

When to go: During the summer this place is hoping (and parking may be difficult to find)! There are many festivals throughout the year during which things will be even busier. We often go during the winter when things are quieter – the downside through is that some of the shops, restaurants, and studios aren’t open or have odd hours.

The Details

In 1831, James Worts invested in a piece of property along Toronto’s shoreline with the intention of establishing his own milling business. Together with his brother-in-law, William Gooderham, what began as an elementary milling operation flourished into Canada’s landmark distillery - the Gooderham & Worts Distillery. By 1871, the Gooderham & Worts distillery produced almost half of Ontario’s total spirit production and exported its whisky and spirits to Canadian markets - even New York. At one time this was the largest distillery in the world!

In 1926, the Gooderham & Worts Distillery was merged under the parent company of Hiram Walker-Gooderham & Worts Ltd. Small amounts of Gooderham & Worts-brand whisky and rum as well as antifreeze continued to be produced at the Toronto distillery until all production ceased in 1990.

In November, 2001 a large developer and Wallace Studios purchased the property for $15 million, breathing new life into the region. The 13-acre site, complete with forty-five 19th century buildings, is now the subject of careful restoration efforts and its new name - The Historic Distillery District - embraces the site’s rich historical and architectural legacy. Today the picturesque, pedestrian-only village houses over a hundred tenants including: galleries, museums, rehearsal halls, boutiques, retail shops, artist studios, restaurants, bistros and cafés. The Distillery bustles with activity day and night. You can catch live music, outdoor exhibitions, fairs and special events at the Distillery year 'round.

The Historic Distillery District continues to be the destination of choice for international filmmakers. The cobblestone paths, grid-street design and the best-preserved collection of Victorian Industrial architecture in North America have established District as the most attractive movie and television filming site in Canada. Recent productions shot at the site include Chicago, X-Men, The Recruit and The Hurricane. Since 1990 the Distillery District has been the location for more than 900 films and television productions.

The developers refused to lease any of the retail and restaurant space to chains or franchises, and accordingly, the majority of the buildings are occupied with unique boutiques, art galleries, restaurants and coffee shops, including a well-known micro brewery, the Mill Street Brewery. The upper floors of a number of buildings have been leased to artists as studio spaces and to offices tenants with a "creative focus". A new theatre, the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, has opened on the site and serves as the home of the Soulpepper Theatre Company and the drama productions of nearby George Brown College.

Some of our favourite spots to visit: Balzacs Coffee House which is in a wonderful two-storey building. This is the branch of the popular Stratford, ONtario coffee house which was written up in National Geographic Traveller earlier this year. Their coffee is fair trade and organic. You can get a light snack here as well to go with your coffee. We buy the beans by the pound for use at home. The patio is a 'happening' place in nice weather.

 

The Brick Street Bakery. This is a small shop but well worth a visit. They use organic flours and make everything in-house. Here you can also buy a light snack (although I have never tried their sandwiches). I can vouch for their meat pies, bread, cookies, and desserts all of which we have enjoyed a number of times!

SOMA Choclates. This amazing bit of heaven is worth a visit on itself! Consistently rated as the best chocolate in Toronto, this shop makes their own chocolate rather than relying on imported chocolate. The pride themselves on making single-origin chocolate where the beans come form one small geograpphic area. Like tasting wine form various regions, one can really taste the difference terroir makes on the taste of the cacao beans. This place is so awesome that a separate blog entry is on its way . . .

There are plans to develop residential condominiums, offices and more retail space on the vacant lands that surround the district. The Distillery District is a National historic site, and has been designated for protection under the Ontario Heritage act since 1976. It was listed by National Geographic magazine as a "top pick" in Canada for travellers. The redevelopment of surrounding vacant lands is expected to accelerate the district's transformation from an abandoned industrial site into one of Toronto's most unique neighbourhoods.

St Lawrence Market

Today Paul and I had a day of fun in Toronto. We picked up mom at 9 am and headed into the city (we live about 30 minutes west of Toronto). We made good time but we amazed at the number of cars that were in the ditch after the snow and ice of last night.

Our first stop was the St Lawrence market - the largest market in Toronto. In 2004 Food and Wine magazine named it as one of the 25 best markets in the world click here to read the article and see the review.

How to find it: Corner of Jarvis and Front St.

TTC: Union Station, then walk east

The area is the site of the city's original market. Though popular most of the week, the market comes to life on Saturdays with local farmers, artists and artisans plying their wares. This historic area also has numerous old warehouses that have been converted into residences, stores, restaurants and pubs.

The Details

The St. Lawrence Market stands where the very beginnings of Toronto were established in 1793, in what is today referred to as the “Old Town of York” (corner Front and Jarvis Sts.) The original city market stood one block north (King and Jarvis Sts.), in a structure that also held the city council chambers. However, a fire in 1849 destroyed most of the neighbourhood.

The current market comprises two buildings, one either side of Front St. The south market building dates from 1905, an imposing red brick structure incorporating what remains of the original City Hall. One merely has to stand in front of the main market entrance to see how one building has wrapped itself around the other. In the 1970’s, the former council chambers on the second floor were transformed into a civic art gallery, which presents an on-going photographic exhibit on the development of Toronto.

St. Lawrence Market’s north building is open on Saturdays only, and features fruits and vegetables and other agricultural products, often sold by the same farmers who produce them. The south building houses dozens of permanent vendors over two floors, and operates Tuesdays through Saturdays. The St. Lawrence experience is perhaps a more genteel one than in Kensington Market (it’s been called Toronto’s “yuppie” market), but the quality, selection, and prices are nonetheless very good.

The best day to visit is Saturday. Farmers arrive prior to the 5:00 a.m. opening time to set up their kiosks, and by 7:00 the place is humming. There are outdoor kiosks as well, even in winter, and the market takes on a special atmosphere prior to major holidays, when vendors are selling Christmas trees, wreaths, or whatever is seasonally appropriate.

The true Torontonian will enjoy breakfast at the market – the famous peameal bacon on a bun. Peameal bacon is a Canadian favourite – salt- and sugar-cured extra lean ham, rolled in cornmeal. It’s a signature snack of Toronto, and well worth trying out. (The reviewer in the Food and Wine article declared it the 'thing to try' at the market!)

We parked the car and wandered around the market for about two hours. We were amazed at the changes to our favourite bread shop where they had renovated, expanded their space, and expanded their line - YUM

Mom, always one for a bargain, checked the 'everything for $ 1 stand:

Here she is trying to think what she could do with four very ripe eggplants!

The selection at the market is incredible. You can get just about everything you may need there: baked goods, cheese, meat, fruit, vegetables, seafood, caviar, chocolates, juice, fresh herbs, dog biscuits, tofu, bulk foods, dried fruit, etc.

I like all of the vendors selling prepared foods. This stand was selling Italian style sandwiches. I didn't get one today but in the past I have had their eggplant on a bun and found it to be truly amazing. A friend of mine loves veal on a bun and she often indulges when she is here.

Upstairs is where most of the meat, seafood, and cheese is sold. This is my favourite cheese stand:

I really think Olympia Cheese has the best selection in the city and the prices are amazing!  Although the selection of Italian cheese is MUCH better at this stand:

In the summer and fall farmers drive into the city and load up the stands with fresh fruit and vegetables. Unfortunately int eh winter it is all mostly imported but the selection and prices still are great as you can see form this pic: 

 

For those of you wanting to head into the city and check out the market here is where it is located:

Insensitive Jerks

Today I overheard a comment and I read an article that have temporarily set me off.  I'll be fine once the caffeine form my coffee sets in but for now I am incredulous at people's insensitivity.

First up - comment about Maher Arar . . .

For those of you who haven't heard of him, Arar is a Canadian software engineer. On September 26, 2002, during a stopover in New York en route from Tunis to Montreal, Arar was detained by the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service who were acting upon false and misleading information supplied by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police . Despite carrying a Canadian passport, he was deported to Syria in accordance with a U.S. policy known as "extraordinary rendition."Arar was held in solitary confinement in a Syrian prison where he was regularly tortured for almost a year, until his eventual release and return to Canada in October 2003.

Maher Arar's case reached new heights of controversy after Juliet O'Neill wrote an article in the Ottawa Citizen on November 08, 2003, containing information leaked to her from an unknown security source, possibly within the RCMP. The secret documents provided by her source suggested Arar was a trained member of an al-Qaida terrorist cell. The RCMP later raided O'Neill's house pursuant to search warrants it had obtained to investigate the leak. The raid was widely denounced and led to the initiation of a public inquiry to investigate Arar's case.

The episode strained Canada-U.S. relations and eventually resulted in the creation of a public inquiry in Canada "into the actions of Canadian officials dealing with the deportation and detention" of Arar. The commission's final report cleared Arar's name and was sharply critical of the RCMP, other Canadian government departments and the United States' treatment of Arar. The United States did not participate in the inquiry. The Bush Administration also maintains that Arar's removal to Syria was legal and was not a case of extraordinary rendition. Human rights groups dispute this. Despite the inquiry's exoneration of Mr. Arar, the United States has so far refused to remove Mr. Arar from its watch list but has agreed to review the case.

Maher Arar's ordeal has remained a very controversial issue and its fallout continues to have repercussions in Canadian politics. It has particularly raised numerous questions yet to be answered concerning the role of various Government ministers and officials in this case. As of December 2006, the latest casualty from the case is RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli, who has resigned over contradictions in his testimony to the House of Commons Committee on Public Safety and National Security with respect to what he knew at the time and what he told government ministers.

Maher sued the Canadian government and I was hoping that he would win a huge settlement, even though I recognize that no amount of money could possibly compensate him for his ordeal. Today the papers are full of reports of a rumoured settlement. Apparently the Canadian government has offered $ 10 million - now to you Americans (the land of HUGE monetary settlements) this may seem paltry but we are not litigious here in Canada. This would be the largest monetary settlement ever reached by the Canadian government.

So, why my rant?

On the train I overheard a guy talking to his friend. His take on the whole thing - a waste of taxpayer dollars and that Arar probably did it on purpose in order to get money!

Hello . . . the man was captured by the Americans using information that the Canadian security folk knew was false. Using that same information they sent him to Syria. There he was brutally tortured on a regular basis for more than a year. No one does this for fun! No one does this on the hopes that they will receive a cash pay out. Blatant stupidity and insensitivity gets my blood boiling.

Second thing: Tonto comment . . . .

Stupidity is alive and well. While there is considerable debate over whether Tonto is a racist term. I think that there is at least agreement that there is an ongoing debate which would call its use into question. Recently a member of the Canadian government, sitting on the Aboriginal Issues committee used the term in a committee hearing. This, as you can imagine has set off a stir of debate. Perhaps it was not a racist comment, it sure was a stupid one!

Proscuitto, Pecorino, and Pear Panini

Lately I have been craving sandwiches. This recipe was  based upon one I found in a Cooking Light magazine. They say it is low-fat but I don't know - it was too damn tasty for low fat! It was even better in that I had all of the ingredients laying about the house.

After our trip to Italy this fall we have been experimenting with 'Italian flavours' this toasted treat was our latest experiment, one we will place in the 'keeper' file. Enjoy!

Prosciutto, Pecorino, and Pear Panini

1 focaccia bread, cut in half horizontially

2 oz proscuitto

2 oz grated pecorino cheese

balsamic vinegar

1 ripe pear, peeled, cored, and sliced

1 cup washed and trimmed arugula leaves

Open the foccacia bread up and sprinkle the balsamic vinegar over the cut sides (I used 10 year old balsamic from the Florence market). Layer the ingredients over one of the cut halves, taking care to spread them out evenly. Cover with the remaining half. Toast in a panini grill until golden brown.

This was an amazing flavour combination!

Dreamgirls

We saw Dreamgirls on Sunday. We enjoyed it. We had never seen the stage show so we had nothing at all to compare it to.

If Jennifer Hudson never makes another movie, if she never sings another song, if she drops off the radar tomorrow, her place will nonetheless be cemented forever by her acting debut in Dreamgirls. Effie is the zaftig member of the girl group the Dreamettes, later re-christened The Dreams. She has most of the talent, but none of the looks in an age when an audience judges singers more by their appearance than by their pipes (some things never change!).

As the film opens in the early 1960s, Effie brings the house down at a Detroit amateur contest with her earthy R&B that shakes the rafters and brings the audience to its feet. They don’t win the contest, an early lesson in life not being fair, a lesson they should have remembered, but it does lead the trio to a gig as the backup singers for local R&B celebrity, James “Thunder” Early (Murphy). It’s also the night that car-dealer and backstage hanger-on Curtis Taylor, Jr. (Jamie Foxx), spots them as his ticket into the music business. It turns the ladies’ lives upside down in more ways than just climbing the charts. Taylor woos Effie, Early, with an oddly irresistible narcissistic charm, puts the moves on Lorrell (Anika Noni Rose), and Deena (Beyonce) begins her transformation from sheltered mama’s girl into a world-class diva.

The story is the show biz classic of fame changing everything for everyone, but the subtext here is much more. Taylor’s plans for crossover success for the Dreams mirrors, perhaps unsteadily, the civil rights movement. Some characters look backward, some look forward, and some sell out. The scenes of rioting in Detroit on the same street as Rainbow Records, Taylor’s nascent music empire, may feel forced, but when Effie is told that Deena will be the lead singer because the act needs to “lighten” up its sound in order to draw a larger audience, there’s no mistaking what’s being talked about here and it’s more than just the backbeat, just as there’s no mistaking the irresistible lure of expediency over politics, money over people.

Director and screenwriter Bill Condon, who proved with the screenplay for 2002’s CHICAGO that he knows how to translate a stage work, has re-imagined DREAMGIRLS for the screen by trusting in the story, not in the way a film can open up a play. The scenes are necessarily episodic, as the film rockets through 15 years, but because the emotional arc remains steady, it’s surprisingly cohesive, creating a story that is much more than the sum of its often very impressive parts. The music seamlessly bridges years and transitions, spatial, temporal, and emotional. The best moment is Effie singing the iconic “I Tell You That I’m Not Going” as her world crumbles around her, a solo that raises goosebumps with its rawness. The best zinger in the film is that it’s followed immediately by the new, Effie-less, Dreams singing pre-digested white noise designed to offend no one rather than appeal to anyone

Effie is at the heart of that arc, impulsive, playful, and arrogant. Hudson celebrates the complexity. She is ferocious in a role that requires nothing less, reconciling the bombast and the vulnerability by making them both, like Effie, larger than life and, more, makes them two sides of the same coin. Her presence is palpable in every frame of film, even if she herself is not on screen. Everyone else is just treading water trying to catch up. Foxx makes the mistake of being reptilian from the start with nowhere to go from there as his character moves from hustler to mogul. Beyonce is better, playing the lump of clay with nothing distinct except her bone structure, but she is still essentially a mannequin. Keith Robinson has more depth as Effie’s songwriter/choreographer brother who loses and then finds his soul, as does Danny Glover as the old-school type of manager who is tossed aside along with the debris from the riots. It’s Murphy who comes close to stealing the film as the mercurial, R&B singer doomed to be road kill when he makes his own try for crossover success, dredging up some genuinely poignant gravitas amid the cocksure comedy.

DREAMGIRLS has the requisite high energy, but more, it nails the even higher emotional stakes working in the tricky idiom of an artificial framework. It has the glitz of a great showbiz story, and the soul of a morality play

There were parts of the story that I thought could have been 'fleshed' out some more i.e. Effie's fall. The ending was a little too 'Hollywood' for me although it did bring a tear to the eye of this curmudgeon.

Orpheus Descending

On Saturday - prior to the icewine extravaganza we saw a production of Tennessee Williams' play Orpheus Descending. In 2005 the play was produced at the Stratford festival and received rave reviews. This production brought back all of the same actors, the director, the producer but a much larger stage in a huge theatre. I wondered how the play would adjust to the significant stage change - the answer was quite well.

I find that Williams is never an easy playwright to watch. So many of the characters are so flawed that I find myself wondering "can anyone really be like this?" I am not a person who likes a lovely, happy ending at the end of every play but in a play by Williams' I don't think anyone is even remotely happy. This play would fit in perfectly with one of the great tragedies by Shakespeare.

This is a tale of a lewd vagrant, a bought woman and a stud for hire all told in a wild and unpredictable melodrama of the American South. It is a gritty play with its themes of racism, addiction, murder, and mayhem. Even though it seems so exaggerated one is left thinking that there may still be places like this in the deep south.

The director, Miles Potter, works a new kind of magic into the heart of the play: the indefinable hold that each of the central three characters has on the other. Lady Torrance (Seana McKenna) runs her dying husband's dry-good store. She's the daughter of an Italian immigrant who was burnt alive for selling liquor to a black man. In walks Valentine Xavier (Jonathan Goad), a guitar-strumming stranger whose impact is best described by Williams himself as creating a "commotion of a fox in a chicken coop." Carol Cutrere (Dana Green) is the rich spoiled girl and self-confessed exhibitionist (like a Paris Hilton but with a moral centre), who seeks salvation from a world of corruption; in the free-spirited Valentine

McKenna depicts the nuances of the racial angst of her Italian character, thereby hinting at injustices that transcend the ones inflicted on her family. Her Lady burns with passion but has a wickedly wry sense of humour. Goad, on the other hand, allows the mercurial nature of Valentine to come to the surface with less apology and more swagger. He's a more rebellious and dangerous figure than ever before. Together, they've found more of what connects their characters in a world that succeeds in setting them apart -- and tragically so. A scene where the two share a bottle of Coke at the store beautifully underlines the moral complexity of their situation: illicit and natural.

When the play appeared in 1957, Williams wrote, "[o]n the surface it was and still is the tale of a wild-spirited boy who wanders into a conventional community of the South and creates the commotion of a fox in a chicken coop. But beneath that now familiar surface it is a play about unanswered questions that haunt the hearts of people and the difference between continuing to ask them...and the acceptance of prescribed answers that are not answers at all."

The play is a retelling of the ancient Greek Orpheus legend in modern clothes and deals, in the most elemental fashion, with the power of passion, art, and imagination to redeem and revitalize life, giving it new meaning. The story is set in a dry goods store in a small southern town marked, in the play, by conformity, sexual frustration, narrowness, and racism. Into this scene steps Val, a young man with a guitar, a snakeskin jacket, a questionable past, and undeniable animal-erotic energy and appeal. He gets a job in the dry goods store run by a middle-aged woman named Lady, whose elderly husband is dying. Lady has a past and passions of her own. She finds herself attracted to Val and to the possibility of new life he seems to offer. It is a tempting antidote to her loveless marriage and boring, small-town life. The play describes the awakening of passion, love, and life -- as well as its tragic consequences for Val and Lady.

The play deals with passion, its repression and its attempted recovery. On another level, it is also about trying to live bravely and honestly in a fallen world. The play is replete with lush, poetic dialog and imagery. On the stage, the opening sections seem somewhat lacking in dramatic movement, but the play picks up power as the characters are developed and it moves to its climax. Val, representing Orpheus, represents the forces of energy and eros, which, buried as they are in compromise and everyday mundanity, have the tragic power to create life anew.

The play is on-stage at the Royal Alexander Theatre until February 11th.

Diet Update

Woo hoo - as of this morning I have managed to drop 10 pounds.