Scheduling Romance Around Shawfest in Niagara, Ontario
by My five year wedding anniversary would demand every romantic tool available, including fresh cut flowers, beeswax candles, and at least two bars of honey chamomile bath soap. Very optimistically, I also packed a small bottle of massage oil, a silk scarf, and two ostrich feathers. But how would I tickle her brain?
She wore a t-shirt on which the words, “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” were emblazoned in red letters. The words belong to George Bernard Shaw, but they were brought to life by her, on that cotton shirt, and she was living them.
Today that girl is a powerful, successful, sophisticated woman. She is entirely the product of her own creation. She is wise beyond her years and it’s hard to surprise her, and even harder to impress her, with anything. As her loving husband its my job to ignite her, delight her, and put her in that magical place where a smile comes more easily than a frown.
A Romantic Vacation
I’ve taken her away to remote tropical resorts in Hawaii and Cuba, and last summer we tried Venice Italy – the farther we go, the worse it becomes! The best trips are those spontaneous adventures shopping in Kensington Market in Toronto, or dining out on the Danforth. But my next assignment was going to be the most difficult of our entire relationship; the second weekend in May is our five year wedding anniversary!
Five years is a long time, and the anniversary is considered a big occasion. I was going to need every romantic tool available to man, including fresh cut flowers, beeswax candles, at least two bars of honey chamomile perfumed bath soap. Very optimistically, I also included a small vial of massage oil, a silk scarf, and two ostriche feathers… But how would I tickle her brain?
The Lost Sowerby Play at the Shaw Festival
The caption caught my eye and solved my biggest problem. My perfect romantic weekend in the Niagara region would be framed around this exciting new play and the compelling story of its recent discovery. The Stepmother by Githa Sowerby (1876-1970) is a newly minted classic that doesn’t yet have the patina of widespread critical acclaim. The play was written and performed only once before – in the year 1924.
In 2004, the Shaw Festival produced another Sowerby play Rutherford and Son written in 1912. Inspired by that success, Jackie Maxwell herself tracked down this later work from the original publishers in London England where this masterpiece had been molding in desk for almost eighty years. The Stepmother hasn’t been performed live since 1924, and that’s just the type of “we”re-making-history-here’ activity my wife enjoys most.
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