Ms. CRANKY --- a short announcement, a must-see 9/11 play, SWEET AND SAD at the Public Theater through September 25

Ms. Cranky saw a wonderful play tonight, September 11, 2011 and wants to let everyone know.  She doesn’t think she can describe it --- you just have to go!  And, it’s reasonably priced (you all know how cheap Ms. Cranky is, well, frugal is a nicer word to use!).

There is this family getting together, making food, setting tables, deciding that the tablecloth is stained and they need a different one.  It’s set today and they talk of 9/11/01, other parts of their lives and what they saw on TV that morning --- the reading of the names, the beautiful new Memorial and what they did in their churches to commemorate.

The play’s so vivid you can touch it.  You feel you know the people immediately and are part of them.  Cranky hadn’t eaten much all day and the food on the tables made her miserably hungry.  But, when she tried to quietly open a protein bar when the set went dark, a guy near her turned and glared so hard that she put it away --- so much for his 10^th anniversary spirit!

The family in the play gets a lot of serious 9/11 stuff across but in a family setting with all the incongruities that provides --- sibling rivalry, snide remarks about things unattended to, asides about sibling’s spouses, and, mostly  total changes of subject in mid-sentence --- we all know it and  that’s why the audience laughed so heartily.

The beauty of the play besides the serious and loving messages it imparts is that it portrays ‘how we are.’   We’re talking along thinking we have something really profound to say and that everyone’s mesmerized and, then, we’re totally interrupted by ‘pass the gravy and you really need to change your shirt!’

Richard Nelson, the playwright is Ms. Cranky’s new hero.  Sweet and Sad is at the Public Theater all week.  Wow, what a ride.  When they said it was an hour and 55 minutes uninterrupted, Cranky started to panic.  But, it seemed like half an hour --- the actors talked like real people talk; they jumped up from the table and moved around, waved their arms, opened another bottle of wine and told their stories --- in a roundabout way --- but, that’s how family stories usually go.

Ms. Cranky

9/11/11

11:30 p.m.