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I HAVE DECLARED A DOONA DAY.

I have diagnosed myself as "too goddamn tired" and called in sick to work, and that allows me to take a nap this afternoon before I go to the theatre tonight. Sushi and the theatre. It is my favourite kind of night.

I don't know much about comics or pretend to be anything resembling a comic-book fan; I like comic books, but I tend to read trades and can't follow superheroes generally as closely as I can follow single-run franchises. Too many spinoffs and such, I get confused easily. But I do read MightyGodKing, who writes mostly about comics, because he also writes incredibly intelligent posts that are aimed at comics but have a much broader application. I suspect you guys may find his article On Reboots as interesting as I did, given that rebooting is a fad lately.

I'm laughing at myself today, because I've been working on a long sequel to the Lo Boeshane story, telling a little more about Jack's early life after leaving Boeshane and before becoming a Time Agent. I was having fun building the world and laying out the setup, but I was worried because I didn't have "a plot" to speak of. A couple of people made suggestions that I kind of cobbled together into A Plot...and then totally ignored to write an entirely different plot. Because apparently outlines and I really don't agree.

But anyway, I've got one now. Hurrah for my brain. :P

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Play is awesome- can never sing Remy Bumppo Theatre's praises enough. About to go into second act!

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Well! I am home from the theatre.

I saw Remy Bumppo's production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, which was very long but held my attention and made me laugh, and that's not something most films do, so well done them. It's a difficult play to do badly, in some ways, because the dialogue just clips right along and unless you just plain have bad actors, it's hard to make it boring. Still, Remy Bumppo is a reliable source for good theatre, and I've yet to see a bad play by them. One can't give the script all the credit.

I will say that previews are tough to attend sometimes, not so much because the play is still rough around the edges (it was; that's expected, and actually relished a bit) but because I forget that there is a...shall we say a certain sort of older person who attends previews and Sunday matinees. They were the bane of my existence when I worked for the box office and now just annoy me by talking, eating chocolates, reeking of Old Spice -- and walking all over the stage, which makes me insane. GET OFF THE FUCKING STAGE.

Also, god save me from ever being That Guy, the one who sees bare tits on stage in the first act and spends all of intermission giggling about it. Jesus. You'd think by the time they hit sixty most men who are interested in breasts have seen a few and could move on.

The set, which is always closest to my heart, was -- well, it was workmanlike. It did what it was supposed to do and didn't get in the way. Sometimes I guess that's all you an ask. There was a lot I would have done differently, particularly the floor, which was painted with a fair amount of skill and precision but so darkly that nobody noticed or cared. It looked like a mat floor for a dance troupe. Still, nil desperandum, one doesn't go to the theatre to look at the floors.

I always forget what an excellent play Les Liaisons Dangereuses is (though difficult to spell). Not just as a play, either; I could deconstruct the meaning of it and the various interpretations I've encountered, but it's fairly straightforward and more fun just to watch and experience. The thing is, it's also a good play from the standpoint of a professional: it's easy to make the sets and costuming interesting and it has a lot of really juicy parts for women while requiring very few men, which is not only fairly rare but quite desireable given the balance of women to men in the theatre today. You do have to have a good Valmont, but then they did. I'm sure I've seen him in other productions -- I think he was Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro, which was my first Remy Bumppo play.

At any rate, if you're in Chicago and looking to see a good show, Les Liaisons Dangereuses is a hot ticket and playing for the rest of March and all of April at the Victory Gardens Greenhouse on the north side. Good play, nice space, comfortable chairs with lots of leg room.