The Sound of Quibbling

HAHAHAHA! Sorry - I'll have control of myself in a second... Last night Rick, Mommy Nancy & meself attended the Davis Musical Theater Company's (DMTC) production of "The Ton of Der Equal Opportunity in Der Hinterland", otherwise known as "The Sound of Music".

I'm being silly with the title; I was tickled that one of the infamously musical Von Trapp Children was a child of color, being Asian. Such casting is old for the DMTC, but dang it, if it still doesn't tickle me. I mean, I can't help wondering what Mrs. Von Trapp told the Mr. when his Aryan daughter turned up looking somewhat un-Aryan. HAHAHAHAHA! Yes, I'm silly, but you already know that. I know that Hans would have found such totally unsurprising - the Polish leaning eastern bits of the Reinland were long ago invaded by Attila the Hun & his ravashing hoards. To this very day, now and again the Asiatic genes pop up and little Freidrich or Inga appear with straight black hair and narrow slanted eyes. Sort of Mother Nature's way of jumping out from behind a shrub and shouting, 'Booga Booga!'

DMTC's cast doing their Doe Rae Me's

Now, back (sort of) to the topic of The Sound of Music. My titterings over the casting was something of a needed distraction for me. I only just read a Salon.com article on what is called The Quiverfull movement, which reported on religious groups that believe women should bear children until either their ovaries run out or their lives do. So during the play it occured to me that the dearly departed original, Mrs. VonTrapp (pre-Maria) whom I never gave a thought to before, had met her end due to Mr. VonTrapp's Quiverfull leanings. Ok, I realize that back in 1930-something the lack of family planning was not The Quiverfull. Back then it was just called 'life as usual', or rather 'life w/o birth control'. Come on, there must have been something available. Anyway, thinking on it made me wonder why, if Captain VonTrapp loved his first wife so much, why didn't he ease up on the procreation side of things - I know, I'm just saying...

Ok, I'll shut up on that tricky topic. So Mrs. Lincoln, other than that, how was the play?

Fun! It was the usual adorable musical. Maria had an angel's voice and was not old enough to drive anything but a tricycle. The Captain VonTrapp was a tad stiff, even after Maria was to have softened him up a bit. The kids were adorable and the best test of the play was that it was very, very, v-e-r-y difficult to not sing out loud. I was reduced to soundlessly mouthing the words. "Up on a hill a lonely goat heard La-eee, o-de-la-ee...O-de-la-eee..." You remember the rest.