Similes from A Month of the Country now at Classic Stage

New York's  Classic Stage Company, an off-Broadway Company that  attracts   actors with bog office magnetizing names  is currently  presenting a  fine revival of Ivan Turgenev's    A Month in the  Country.

 Typical  of these long-ago  Russian plays,   there are plenty of  interesting  secondary characters with their  own subplots-- in this case romantic interests.   The most amusing of these is between the play's  country doctor  and  a  spinster,   which   lacks the sizzling passion of  the Country Estate's  beautiful  doyenne.   To wit  a hilarious   no-nonsense proposal which  nevertheless insures that the Good  Doctor  has a   fully  functioning libido  as indicated  by his assurance  that    her "somewhat old-maidish" ways will be no problems  since  "in the hands of a good husband, a woman is like soft wax." <br><br>



I  also liked this  this extend   simile in which the    beautiful, Natalya  tells  her  best  brainy friend  bored  chatelaine of a Russian estate who falls madly in love with her child's tutor.  She also has a flirtatious friendship with a  friend Ratikin   whose way with words   she  enjoys  but that don't move  her:

 "You’re clever, but... your words are like lace – intricate and beautifully constructed. But you know how they make it? Lace? In airless rooms without windows, hunched over their work fourteen hours a day. Lace is lovely, but give me a drink of fresh water on a hot day any time."

Here's a link  to my review of the production www.curtainup.com/monthinthecountrycsc15.html

Colorful speech comes natural to the Irish--

 New York's invaluable Irish Rep Theater  is currently  reviving Hugh Leaonard's  D a--   the title character being the father   from whom his son Charlie  would like to distance himself.  But this being an Irish play,  the  old guy refuses to stay put   even after he's  dead --  or as   Charlie puts it
"he keeps coming back  like  a  yo-yo."

This being a memory play  we also  see Charlie being interviewed for his first job  by the dour Mr.  Drumm  who    knows  the boy is too smart for it  and  advises him not to  take it with this pungent simile    "jobs are like lobster pots, harder to get out of than into. . ."  And sure enough,  it takes thirteen years for Charlie to  get out of that figurative lobster pot.

Once he  is in London and a successful playwright  he wants his aging Da  to   come live with him and greets the old man's refusal with  "you'd rather stay here  instead like a maggot in a cabbage and die of neglect."

Here's a link to Curtainup's   review  of  the production
www.curtainup.com/dairishrep15.html