Last night (Saturday), Mer and I went to Actors’ Summit to see our second play of the season, Medea. I knew almost nothing about Medea, except it was an ancient Greek tragedy (about 2400 years old). The lead role of Medea was being played by an Actors’ Summit regular who is a very good actress.

The story of Medea is pretty typical. Medea falls in love with Jason of Argonauts fame. She saves his life several times, betrays her father the king, kills her brother when he comes after her, and moves to Greece with Jason to be his wife. They have two sons together. Jason then marries the daughter of the Greek king so he can be king someday. This does not go over well with Medea. She raves so much the king fears for his daughter’s life and sentences her to exile, giving Medea one day to get ready. She uses that day to plot the death of the king, the king’s daughter, plots to kill her sons to hurt Jason, and arranges her own safe haven in Athens. It happens all the time.

While a tad on the extreme, the play is still performed after 2400 years because it does raise issues of faithfulness, revenge, hatred, justice, love, family, and more. The play was compelling. The language was a bit stilted in places (those Greeks had a thing for oratory and speeches, even in plays), but the leads in the play were excellent, so they were able to act through the stuffy language and make it seem almost normal. Usually the acting at Actors’ Summit is excellent, so I was a little surprised that one or two of the minor characters were acted fairly flatly. The lines were delivered, but they had the feel of almost being read instead of acted. Still, the major roles were excellent, and they pulled the play off well. Seeing Medea makes you want to be very, very nice to your wife.

Speaking of nice, we had a gift certificate to the Old Whedon Grille in Hudson. We had never eaten there before. It is a casual dining experience with TVs in the corners showing sports. The menu is extensive, and full of food that I like. Mer had a southwestern wrap, and I had cashew-crusted chicken. They both came with really good fries (I may have to take Sonotmu there, since he is the fries connoisseur). Dessert was chocolate lava cake. MMMmmmmm. It was a nice date night – dinner and a show! Just don’t scorn your date!