Whatever You Do...Don't Go to the Bathroom

After a characteristically long gap, I am now back on the blog! Did ya miss me?

And boy do I have a story for you. Shane and I had a lovely date night scheduled last night - we planned to go out to dinner at the new-ish Japanese noodle place on Pratt Street called Tanuki and see the show THWAK! at Hartford Stage.


Everything was going along very smoothly and we were having a lovely time. The noodle place was fun and the food was good. We also had one of my FAVORITE desserts there. It's called mochi ice cream and at Tanuki they serve it creme brule style with caramelized sugar on top. It's hard to explain and, in all honesty, I like regular mochi ice cream better...but it was still very good!

So then we headed over to the theater for the show. We didn't know where our seats were (don't ask) so when an usher guided us to the cabaret style seating right in front of the stage...and then to the table that was smack dab in the middle of the first row...well, needless to say, we were very surprised. A little while after we got there a very nice couple joined us at our table and we made small talk and sipped drinks while we waited for the 90 minute, intermissionless show to start.

I think you may see where this is going...

A little over 3/4 of the way through the show I noticed Shane had stopped laughing...which was odd because the show was very funny (you should really watch the clips on the Hartford Stage's website...the show is there until August 2!!! ::shameless plug on behalf of my Greater Hartford arts comrades::). I turned to look at him to see if something was wrong and he had a very concerned look on his face. I asked him if something was wrong and he whispered to me the three most dreaded words one could possibly udder while being seated in the front row, dead center, at an intermissionless show..."I have to pee."

Now one might think, "What's the big deal? Just get up and go to the bathroom." Under normal circumstances, even though it's somewhat gauche, this is acceptable. But we knew better. Earlier in the show a woman who was also seated near the front of the cabaret area got up to use the restroom. IMMEDIATELY one of the actors began screaming, "GET OUT!!!! GET OUUUTTT!!!!" and the two launched into merciless taunting (much in the same way stand-up comedians do if you get up in the middle of a show...this show had a similar feel to something like that). It was very funny....but it also made you think "thank GOD that wasn't me!"

So now fast forward to Shane's predicament. He has to use the men's room and we're not sure how much longer the show is. Like a trooper, he tried to stick it out for as long as he possibly could. But just when I saw beads of sweat forming on his brow and a look on his face that made me think he was going to be sick he said "That's it...I'm not gonna make it," got up and walked out. He received some mild taunting but when he didn't respond one of the actors just said, "he doesn't give a shit, does he?" So true...so true. ;)

About 5 minutes later the show was over. Damn. But no matter...we both agreed we had a wonderful time in spite of the jeering.

So the moral of the story? If you're going to see a 90 minute, intermissionless comedy-type show...go potty before it starts or you may just get some unwanted attention.