Promise and Promiscuity

usker’s Festival is on at the moment, so Lytteltonwitch and I went to see Promise and Promiscuity tonight, a one-woman show based (loosely) around Jane Austen’s works, with a lot of modern references thrown in.  It was very cleverly done, with the actor (who also wrote the script) putting on different voices and mannerisms as she jumped from character to character (some of the scenes had four or five characters in them, so it was quite a feat!)  There was the obligatory audience participation, with someone from the audience being dragged up to dance with her at the ball (he was with a group who were all dressed up in steampunk outfits, so he almost looked the part, too – only about a hundred years out 🙂 ), and lots of local references thrown in (as when one of the characters got lost in the dreaded “Lin Woods” – Linwood is a (rather rough) suburb of Christchurch).
We’d had a quick dinner before the show in one of the new places in the rebuilt Strange’s building (well, actually it’s kind of an old place reinvented – Vespa, which used to be in Poplar Lane before the earthquakes), but as it was a horribly hot day and we were eating really early, we just had a few tapas dishes.  So after the show we decided we needed dessert, and decided to try out Strawberry Fare, another place I haven’t been to since well before the earthquakes.  They’re also in a fancy new building, but their menu doesn’t seem to have changed much – probably a sensible move, seeing as they’ve got a very successful formula.  Their portion sizes have shrunk a little from what I remember, but we still decided to just split a dessert – a whole one each would still have been way too big (and expensive!) – half was just enough.
It was fun to go out to some new/old places, and reminded me I haven’t been out for dinner for ages.  I was making a point of going out regularly for a while, while I was adjusting to my new improved life, but I’ve let myself get out of the habit.  I really must start doing it again.