Looking for any reason to return to Ford’s Theatre, Aaron and I discovered that during the week, with the 35 and under category, tickets to shows were only $15 a person!!!! Not ones to pass up a chance like that, we bought ourselves two tickets to this show on the day we visited the Museum. We did not read up on the play and were thoroughly surprised and entertained. The set was simple and costumes were of the period. The whole play consisted of three characters – three sisters, who were the carpetbagger’s children and the play was a narrative of the times long gone, but delivered in a way that made you feel as if you were living with them during that time.
The three actresses were fantastic as they took turns, remembering the stories and anecdotes, and their depiction of the other characters in the story, including their mother, was hilarious! The play also spoke of a time when things were about land and schemes to swindle one of their money or inheritance by investing in some insurance this, that or the other. Their portrayal of small-town life and the intertwining relationships of family and community was at times charming, funny, sad, and downright hilarious! The play also touched upon the society at the time, how men and women were regarded and how the country was changing due to the industrialization. Farms and farmers were going out of business as they could not keep up with the machines and it really affected the lives of many American at the time.
It was a beautiful, funny and thought-provoking play and was done fantastically well! If you get a chance to see it, you really should! After this play ended, Aaron and I went to the Hard Rock Cafe right next door, a stark contrast to what we had just witnessed, and discussed the play, while we were being drowned out by Mick Jagger in yellow tights, screaming about his inability to get any satisfaction, no matter how hard he tried.
It was a fun evening at the theater!
P.S. I do not have any pictures of it, as I did not take a camera, which is a bulky yet light one. But it did allow me to concentrate on the play itself and enjoy every bit of it, including the historic aspect of watching a play in the same place where Abraham Lincoln once watched plays too!
