Last Monday night, Deutsch & I decided to forgo our usual exciting evening of television watching to see a play. Believe it or not, it is possible to obtain some culture in Los Angeles. You just need to seek it out.

An evening of culture would not be complete without dinner before the show. Since the theatre was in Westwood, an area we are not familiar with, we ventured to a new restaurant. Deutsch performed his usual restaurant search through the internet and found us an Italian place, Tanino. It was nice, a little stuffy, but nice. We shared a half bottle of a red wine blend. To our defense, we only had a half bottle because it’s never a good idea to consume a lot of alcohol right before a sit-down performance. I learned that the hard way when we saw “The Producers” (on Broadway no less) and almost fell asleep during the first act. Anyway, I digress. Both Deutsch & I had the bland pumpkin tortellini in a sage cream sauce. It sure sounded good, but was a let down. To make up for our disappointment, we indulged in flour-less chocolate cake. It was an improvement, but nothing to shout from the mountain tops. I think we will continue our Westwood restaurant search.

We went to the Geffen Playhouse and saw “Boston Marriage”, written and directed by the great David Mamet. With only a cast of three women, it is an interesting ensemble of Rebecca Pidgeon, Mary Steenburgen and Alicia Silverstone. This Victorian period comedy took place in only one setting, a drawing room. In the usual Mamet way, the dialogue went at a furious rhythmic pace. Between the accents, cryptic dialogue and quick pace, it was easy to miss something. Which I’m sure I did, more than once. On the heels of Brokeback Mountain, this play deals with unconventional relationships in an unforgiving time. All three performances were enjoyable, but Alicia Silverstone was the stand out of the women. I must admit, I was not expecting much from her theatrical abilities. However, Alicia was a pleasant surprise. She had great comic timing. She may have had the smallest role and the shortest stage time, but she took her character and ran with it.

It was definitely an enjoyable evening, especially for a Monday night. We even had celeb spottings at the play: director Kevin Smith and actor Dennis Haysbert. We are even thinking about seeing the production “1984” this week. Hey, this culture thing is kinda fun.

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