Sweet "Murder for Two"

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending Murder for Two, the latest offering at the CLO Cabaret. Watching this very funny, fast-paced musical parody of an Agatha Christie whodunit was just the way I wanted to spend my Sunday afternoon.  There were two energetic actors in the show playing all the roles.  One played the officer investigating the murder while the other played ALL the suspects, all the while accompanying themselves and each other on the piano. Whodunit?  Who cares?!  It was just tremendous fun, and a great way to leave the worries of the world behind you for 90 minutes.

 

While watching this lighthearted escapist fare I was reminded of the time long ago when some of my friends decided to cheer me up by taking me to a Tennessee Williams play.

It all started with a particularly virulent case of strep throat in my first semester as a freshman in college. I couldn’t talk, I couldn’t swallow, I couldn’t think and every inch of my body was in such intense pain that it hurt to be awake.  The doctors ordered me to stay in bed for five days, and I couldn't have ignored them even if I wanted.

When I got out of bed and went back to class, I was weak, sick, emotional, vulnerable and WAY behind in my schoolwork.  So, when I got a D on an English Composition assignment (always my best subject) from a Graduate Assistant who couldn’t or wouldn’t tell me what was wrong with my paper, it was a breaking point.

It occurred to me that perhaps college was too much for me. I decided that I was going to quit school, go home and become an Assistant Manager at Winky’s Drive-In Restaurant, where they appreciated me. I was crying hysterically and packing my suitcase when my roommate Nancy and our friend Donna found me.

Donna and Nancy instantly slipped into their best Supportive Friend modes.  They calmed me down, assured me that everything would be alright and that it all seemed worse than it actually was because I was still sick.

As they unpacked my suitcase, they informed that I needed to relax, forget about everything, and just have some fun.  They were sure that a good night of theater was just the thing to take my mind off my troubles, so they cheerfully escorted me to the campus production of Tennessee William’s Sweet Bird of Youth.

Have any of you ever seen Sweet Bird of Youth?  Jeff Stafford called it “one of Tennessee Williams' most corrosive and disturbing plays,” (http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/18568%7C0/Sweet-Bird-of-Youth.html) which is really saying something since Williams specialized in corrosive and disturbing plays.  Stafford was not wrong – next to Sweet Bird of Youth, Glass Menagerie looks like a light romantic comedy.

Without going into all the sordid details, let’s just say that the play’s message of hopelessness and not being able to escape your past coupled with its horrific ending was not exactly the play I needed to see that particular evening.  I went in ready to quit college, and I left totally despondent and bereft about life itself.

 

After I thought it over, strep throat and a bad grade on one paper didn't seem so bad compared with the sheer misery of the tortured existences of the characters in the play.  While there was nothing actually sweet about the play (despite the name) I did have some very sweet friends who would drop everything they were doing to look after me and help me through a tough time.  So in the end I stayed in school, got a B+ in that Composition class, and went on to become a professional writer.

Nonetheless, I still wish that the campus theater department was doing something like Murder for Two that night. This show cheered me up and I was in a pretty good mood going in.