A day or two ago, Silicon Valley Shakespeare told us that they’d postponed their 48-Hour Play Festival from Sunday, January 9th until sometime in the spring “out of an abundance of caution”. And today, I got a call from City Lights telling us that they were delaying their production of The Hollow by two weeks “out of an abundance of caution” and asking us to reschedule our date.

I’m not unhappy with either of those decisions – in fact, we were more than a bit nervous about this weekend’s event, so I’m glad they postponed it. But I am getting tired of hearing the phrase “out of an abundance of caution” – how about something simpler, like “to keep everyone safe”?

One of our first dates was seeing the RPI Players’ production of Sweet Charity at the RPI Playhouse. Diane and I have seen many plays together since then, and have been back in the Playhouse for a few Reunion dinners, but tonight was the first time since 1976 that we’ve seen the Players perform, even if it was neither live nor in person.

Back in November, I happened to be looking at the Polytechnic and saw a story about the Players’ production of Clue on Stage; it was their first production since the pandemic began. They made it available online for a short time, so I downloaded it and we watched it tonight.

It’s not a very deep play, but it was a good choice for an evening’s entertainment. We’ll probably watch the movie sometime and see how the two productions compare. I’ll bet the actors in the movie weren’t wearing masks!