Charlotte's Web

We met up with friends Mary, Patrick and Rowan and went to see the Oregon Children's Theatre production of Charlotte's Web yesterday.  The children did very well and were excited to see the play - to get dressed up, to go to the fancy theatre, to meet up with our friends, to see a show.  We read the book in the week or two preceding the show. Liesl found it difficult to sustain her attention through the story, but Sebastian was enthralled. He and I both cried in the penultimate chapter, when Charlotte dies. I love that he cared, that he was into the book and characters enough to cry over Charlotte's lonely death.

The show itself was fine - not outstanding, but perfectly decent. The best part was the actress who played Charlotte, who was an acrobat of sorts, climbing and twirling and swirling and wrapping herself in these long white strands of fabric. That was cool. I thought they could have made some different choices with the characters (I wasn't particularly keen on Wilbur), and could have retained more of E.B. White's language, but all in all I'm happy we went. As they get older, I'm looking forward to taking the children to see performances of various fine arts - dance, theatre, music - and to museums and galleries. It was also fun to join our friends, and to have a family double date. We had dinner together after the show at Red Onion, a favorite Thai restaurant, and then let the kids race around together in the waning daylight.