I had almost forgotten what it was like on a sunny (well, semi-sunny) Saturday in July, but was reminded in a flash driving down: The Parkway was jammed, as everybody on the eastern seaboard seemed to be going south to the shore.
In addition, I had a hard time finding Clermont Avenue, so arrived a half hour late. As it turned out, that didn't really matter, as John P., our leader, had called to say he was in the mammoth traffic jam driving down from Trenton; it was almost 2:00 by the time he got in.
It turned out to be a so-so session.
While we waited, Mary W. asked to read a religious poem about Jesus. The group consists mainly of followers of Abraham, but were courteous enough to listen, while I, the lapsed mackerel-snapper, was bored out of my mind.
We then read Mary W.'s nonsensical offering, which featured a dysfunctional family named "Catholic." (Subtle, no? No.) The dialogue was incomprehensible overall, and the character sometimes burst out in rhyme--also incomprehensible. I was given the part of Liz Catholic, the daughter, who is building a corral (she spelled it "coral") with scarves she's folding and tying. Another character is one of the scarves, whose name is Pepe Juan. Mind you, this isn't supposed to be a comedy, but what it was, I don't know, aside from seventeen pages of idiocy.
We actually spent a good twenty minutes seriously discussing this garbage until we turned to Ernie's play. This was built around Waiting for Godot and I had the part of Gogo. It had some snappy, ping-pong dialogue, and was actually pretty funny, although somewhat obscure. Not bad.
The third act of Linda's continuing play came next. This concerns a woman dying of cancer and her relationship with her sister, husband, and nurse. It made sense, at least.
We broke up a bit after 4:00 and I met Betty and Alice W. for early dinner at "Bocca" restaurant on Ventnor Avenue. Had an enjoyable time and got home by 7:00.
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