Studio Theater's "Road to Mecca" and Cork Wine Bar

Saturday, October 18. Studio Theater's Road to Mecca finishes its run tonight. It's a dark play about South Africa's rural life, brought to the stage as the plight of a late middle-aged woman, Helen Martins, a real artist, who builds her own garden of statues all facing Mecca and lights her home with candles and reflective glass to brighten her life--all to the astonishment and disapproval of her Afrikaner fellow villagers. This play brings out strongly the need for freedom and imagination. Running along with this is the love the local Dutch Reformed pastor has for her, never requited, and the visits of a young woman, Elsa, from Capetown who provides a mother-daughter role for both of them, badly in need of affection. Another subtext is the issue of apartheid and the effects on the people in the village both African and Afrikaner. A superb play by Athol Fugard written in 1974. Ben and John's grade: A.

Following the excellent production at Studio, we walked up 14th Street to Cork, a wine bar, strongly recommended by the Washington Post critic Tom Sietsema. It's a fine tapas bar with dishes built for two as small portions. We enjoyed a 2005 Beaujolais Fleurie coupled with smoked trout with fennel and mache, duxelles of mushroom with onion spread on toast, then salsify caramelized with walnuts, scallops in a light curried cream sauce and stuffed quail. A lovely meal, highly recommended. No reservations. We did not try the wines by the flight, which looked very interesting. The bar was offering flights of pinot noir and vins crémants. The crowd is younger, and the restaurant is quite loud. Very pretty people. Approximately $40-$50 per person.

Lieutenant of Inishmore & Dinner at Bistro Bis

Friday, October 10, we were bloodied by the Lieutenant of Inishmore, by Anglo-Irish playwright, Martin McDonagh. Set in the 70s on the Isle of Aran, the play is a black comedy about the splinter Irish National Liberation Army and its attitudes about life. Centered on the death of a black cat, Wee Thomas, lovingly owned by the Lieutenant, Padriac, its humor reaches through sexuality, murder, sado-masochism, and general stupidity to engage the audience.

The play is bloody, finishing with hacked bodies in pieces on the stage in a pool of pseudo-blood. It is gruesome, with the blinding of a group of terrorists. It is sad and witty. At Signature Theater, Arlington, VA. A performance that gets Ben and John's A.

Saturday, October 11, we were entertained by friends visiting from Wales with dinner at the Bubens' Bistro Bis restaurant in the Hotel George on E Street near the Capitol. A superb dinner in the restaurant's bar, quieter than the main dining room. Thanks to our friends we enjoyed an Oregon Pinot Gris from Torii Mor Vineyard 2007 to begin, with crab cakes for our hosts, quenelles of seafood for Ben and lobster bisque for me. Following that we enjoyed a Sonoma Russian River Valley Emeritus Pinot Noir 2006, full bodied with lush fruit, joining mains of skate for Ben and one visitor, halibut for the other and sweetbreads zangara for me with spinach. Wonderfully done. They finished with chocolate tortes with raspberries; a small cheese plate of Portuguese manchego-style, Nancy Camembert, and Stilton blue with various crackers and preserves for us. A lovely meal. Thanks to our visitors.

Bistro Bis, in the Hotel George, 15 E Street, NW, Washington. Approx. $100/person.