The Princess Bride - Final Performance

It isn't often that we'll attend a play for more than one performance, but when one of the lead actors is our son, we'll make an exception.

And it helps that his aunt, uncle and cousin are in town.

So we all came out to see the final performance of the show tonight. The Whiteads were going to be seeing it for the first time, so they had the advantage of not knowing what it was going to be like (except for the rather large hints we dropped about the parts we especially liked). We were looking forward to seeing the differences in the performances, to see what had been changed between Thursday's and Saturday's shows, especially when we had noticed one or two things that hadn't gone as planned.

James's performance was nearly the same; that is, there was nothing to change, as he had already nailed the character on the first night, so the only detectable changes were those due to his environment: slight differences in timing of the dialogue, placement of the set pieces, actions of other characters.

The set didn't fall apart this time, so Wesley and Inigo didn't have to rebuild it on the fly during their epic swordfight on the cliff.

The Whiteads enjoyed the performance, and then we all went home and enjoyed some dessert. Except James, who had to attend the Cast Party.Which is, after all, the most important part of the play for those who participate.

One wonders, perhaps, if he was thinking of the festivities afterward as he posed so nonchalantly against the castle wall, or if he was pondering his next line. He made it look so easy! I'm persuaded to believe that he had the part down so well that he was able to think of other things even while in character.