One Little Goat, One Little Goat my father bought for two zuzim

So Dana and I met up with Sandra last night to see the One Little Goat production of Thomas Bernhard's Ritter, Dene, Voss down at Alchemy Theatre. It's a great space — reminds me of some of the little alternative theatre spaces I went to in the 1970s to see Sam Sheppard and Tom Walmsley and Patti Smith plays.

One Little Goat is Adam Seelig, a Toronto poet who likes to dig up plays by poets. His last production was of work for the stage by the great Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai (my parents met him when they were in Israel thirty years ago and got him to sign a book for me! how the hell did they meet Yehuda Amichai? and what an incredibly thoughtful thing for them to do for me!).

Anyway, Ritter, Dene, Voss was an amazing experience. Wonderful acting by Shannon Perreault, Maev Beaty and Greg Thomas. Three distinct, complex, hilarious characters. Both in and occasionally out of character. Great set design, lighting, and direction, too, not that I know anything about theatre. Two sisters receive their nutso philosopher brother back at their inherited home after he's released from a sanitorium. The sexual tension, the competition between the sisters, the mad obsessiveness of everyone on the stage: a fabulous two hours.

The play is on until Sunday. Only $12 for artists and the low-waged! And Adam Seelig is such a sweet guy.

This morning I finished off my Hunkamooga column for sub-Terrain. I think it will piss someone off. But it had to be said. And I don't name names. Is that cowardly or sensible? This particular column is about "money." I'm not crazy about this sub-Terrain thing of themed issues, but so far I've come up with something appropriate without compromising.

So that's two completed pieces of writing in the past week. Two reasons fewer to feel guilty and useless.

Next thing to dig into is the final version of my poetry manuscript for Anvil. To my astonishment, I got a cover out of the artist I most wanted to design my book. He did exactly the cover I might have dreamed of. It's going to be perhaps the most insane cover of a Canadian poetry book ever.

Over and out.