Saturday was Mer’s date day, but it got off to a late start because of the ten inches of snow we had in our driveway. I went out and shoveled about half the driveway when a neighbor came over to help me with his snow blower. It was much appreciated. I checked with Mer, and she said she had no immediate plans, so I wandered down the road to a friend’s house to help him dig out. I figured since someone helped me, I should help someone else. It was a good time helping Jerry dig out – we’d shovel and talk, and it was a pretty good time.

Once that was wrapped up, I went home, and dug out the end of our driveway since the plow had been by. Once we were able to get out, Mer and I ran an errand up in Hudson, and then we went home. We had lunch, and Mer went to get groceries while I napped. I woke up about an hour-and-a-half later to the doorbell. It turned out to be my neighbor and his very cute daughters – they had made cookies and brought them over to me. They were quite good.

Once Mer got home, we ate supper and listened to Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me! via the internet, which is a favorite pastime. Mer then told me to get ready to go out, and out we went.

We headed to Akron, where the roads were a bit snowy still, but we made it to my old stomping grounds (from back in 1995!), where we went to the Coach House Theater. The Coach House is a very small theater that can hold about 90 people. It is a community theater, but it tends to put on quite good plays. In fact, several of the members of this production had been actors in major theaters around the U.S., and they were doing community theater simply because they love theater.

Mer had brought me to the Coach House to see Agatha Christie’s Witness for the Prosecution. I had never seen nor read anything by Agatha Christie, so I was pretty excited. Mer had never seen this particular play, so we were well prepared to be surprised by the ending, which we both were. That was fun.

I won’t give the play away, but it centered on a young man who is accused of murdering an old lady for her money. His wife is his alibi, but she is a cold foreign woman. The play unfolds in the offices of the Queen’s Council lawyer (the defense lawyer) and in the courtroom itself.

The acting was much fun. The only thing I was not sure on was the young man – his mannerisms and accent made me think he was American, but there were a few things mentioned that made that unlikely. The two main lawyers had enough accent and formal air to pull off respected British lawyers. The cold wife was well acted as well.

The play was fun – there was a good amount of humor, and I did not see the ending coming at all. It was a well done show, and now I have a little Agatha Christie background if I need it.

We really do live in a theater-rich area. We have been to a theater in Canton, two in Akron, two in Hudson, and two in Cleveland in just the last year. The added bonus is that the community theaters tend to be very affordable. Good theater at a good price is hard to beat for a date day.