TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS IN PORTLAND OREGON

Today’s the day, Tiny Beautiful Things day, at Portland Center Stage at the Armory.

Truth is it could be any play and I’d still go. PCS used to be the go-to stage in Portland for my mother in law and my wife.

After she shuffled off this mortal coil, I picked up the slack. Now it’s a wife date and Tiny Beautiful Things is next up.

But it’s more than that. It’s always more on a wife date.

The reviews for Tiny Beautiful Things have this in common: Be prepared to cry.

You’ve heard this prep talk before? ‘Be ready to cry or be a heel for not crying’ sounds like a challenge.

Will I cry? Will my wife cry? How about the people around us?

I’ll be watching.

From samuelfrench.com:

Critic’s Pick! “Tiny Beautiful Things is about the endangered art of listening to – and really hearing and responding to – other people…it works beautifully as a sustained theatrical exercise in empathy.” / The New York Times. 

“Catharsis, that ancient communal ritual of purging and healing…a show that aims to open our eyes to the tiny moments when the world surprises us with care.” – New York Magazine

“Should be a sought-after title for other venues looking for a theatrical hug in turbulent times.” – Variety, Read More 

“It’s provocative, poignant and rich.” – New York Daily News, Read More 

“Heart-tugging and emotionally rewarding.” – The Huffington Post.

Tiny Beautiful Things Has Answers?

I hope it has answers because I’ve got questions I’m not asking. I already know I’ll cry tonight. It’ll be quiet crying, maybe a sniffle. No plans on bawling my heart out, but who knows if I get the right answers to unasked questions.

I look for answers in every movie and television show, every concert and play. Sometimes I get answers, sometimes not, but this is a play based on an advice column. There’ll be answers and tissues.

What I want to know:

#1. Why did my parents get divorced? Was it because my older brother and I had moved out and the younger kids in the family couldn’t hold it together? With the stabilizing influences gone, the thrill left too? That’s got to be a weighty problem for them, but still a good question.

#2. Why did my college girlfriend and I break up? Was it because I didn’t go to church with her and her family? Because I met her dad and said it would be sad to end up like him? Because I asked her granny to excuse us while I asked my girlfriend what the hell was wrong with her nosey grandparents? And she overheard?

#3. What keeps people together, from friends, to family, to classmates?

Keep in mind I write this here blog, boomerpdx, and I give advice, too. If some yahoo asked me the questions I asked above?

I’d answer like this:

#1. Kids don’t break up long term marriages, boredom breaks up long term marriages. Bored of the same routine, the same town, the same people, and your partner is a part of it. Go ahead and try to own someone else’s failed marriage, but you can only rent it. You have failures of your own to carry. I’ve got a long term marriage myself, longer than my parents on their first times around. Can’t see a kid killing it now.

#2. My college girlfriend and I never broke up in the traditional sense of breaking up. We lived together in college, then moved apart but didn’t really break up. So we got engaged before she graduated and moved three thousand miles away. I dropped out of college and followed her the next term. Big sacrifice on my part, right? The reviews weren’t sparkling after the extended family exposure. She found someone more acceptable, married him, then divorced him. Then she married someone else and divorced them. I’d like to know how her other men fit into the extended family. Better than I did?

#3. What keeps people together? I just spent Tuesday to Monday hosting a class reunion with my wife’s best friends from high school. It wasn’t about me in the slightest, so I practiced being a listener while we drove around looking for girl trouble with four women.

My listening test long weekend began when one of the women said she couldn’t understand how anyone could hear when everyone talked over everyone else. I said it took practice.

My driving skills were tested when I avoided traffic jams by showing off my Portland street skills to these LA women. Instead of calmly sitting in traffic, I took the surface streets and raced from stop light to stop light. Car sickness followed.

People stay together because they will themselves to find new reasons to show up. Chase boredom with action, warm hearts by lighting new flames, extinguish better memories with love.

Will Tiny Beautiful Things answer questions better than I did in my blogging guise?

Stay tuned for a complete answer.