This Usher Got Lucky

I don't want to brag or anything, but if you went to the matinee of A Doll's House at Henley Street Theater today, I was the one handing you your program.

That's right, I ushered for the first time in my life and I think I did a damn fine job, if I do say so myself. I'd received an e-mail soliciting ushers for the run of the play and since I wanted to see it anyway, I figured, why not do it for free?

A Doll's House is one of those plays I've read more than once yet never seen produced When I last reread it in the early aughts, I put it on my short list of plays I intended to see live. The funny thing is, a 70-something playgoer told me today that she's been waiting 50 years (since she was in college) to see it produced. A teacher had told her it was one play she must see and she'd never forgotten his words. So there were at least two of us in this afternoon's audience crossing something off our lifetime to-do list.

And it was so worth it.

The production was excellent, perfectly cast, nicely paced and with beautiful costumes and a set composed of antiques. I know it's been referred to as the first feminist play, and deservedly so, but the dialog was still striking in its chauvinism.

Nora: Correct me like you usually do.
Torvald: With pleasure.

In addition to a clutch of the Red Hat Society ladies, there was a group of students from the Appomattox Governor's School at the performance and the more egregious lines elicited titters from them.

Torvald: I wouldn't be a man if you being helpless didn't make you doubly attractive.

Gender cliches aside, I considered it a real treat to usher in exchange for a seat, but I got an even bigger surprise when mine was one of two names pulled from the bowl to win free tickets to next season's opener, Waiting for Godot.

And unlike Nora, who at the end tells Torvald that, "I no longer believe that something glorious can happen," I'm still of the opinion that it can. True, seeing such a well-done play for free and winning tickets might not qualify as glorious, but it made for an especially fine Sunday afternoon for someone like me.

Which tells me that the something glorious is still out there just waiting to happen to me. Bring it on.