Belly and Truman Capote

Every day, we see more and more the grown-up beautiful Belly is morphing into. Those eyes, ai yai yai. Mischief seems to be unchanged.



Last night, Plot and Duck went to Theatre Rhino to see a Word for Word enactment of Truman Capote's "A Christmas Memory." For more than twenty years, this was a one-man show, with Robert Coffman sitting on his red chair and reading one of the most satisfyingly sentimental short stories ever written. Capote's language is incomparable, and, just by reading, Coffman was able to transport every person in a packed audience to the countryside of southern Alabama in the 1930s.

But Robert Coffman died a few years ago. Plot and Duck saw his last show (with Tiaposian Big Blogs and her husband George). Theater Rhino hadn't resumed the tradition...until last night, when Word for Word, in conjunction with Theater Rhino, performed a staged reading of the story, with four actors. It was every bit as nostalgic, funny, emotional, heartwarming...which is to say the secret, obviously, resides in Capote's writing. The show is only 45 minutes long and it's the most perfect and warming desert after a long, hail-and-rain filled day.

But that was it. One night only. Hopefully the Word for Word version becomes a tradition at the Rhino from now on, in memory of Robert Coffman, who would be very happy. You can read the San Francisco Theater Blog Review of "A Christmas Memory" here, but be sure to bring two hankies.