For someone that loves the arts, I'm woefully uneducated in the theater department - plays, musicals, operas and the like. If asked to go, I'm right there, but I don't actively seek it out. I don't know why, because I fell in love with the play Barefoot in the Park when it was broadcast on HBO back in 1980. To this day, after countless performances of Grease, Bye Bye Birdie, Fiddler on the Roof (a teeth grinding endurance test for me), Carmen and Romeo and Juliets, Barefoot stands atop the list as my favorite.
The story is impulsive Corie marries uptight Paul, and they kick-start their honeymoon in a tiny 5th floor walk-up apartment. Paul is pessimistic, cautious and in a perpetual state of "what's next!?" Corie is flighty, funny, optimistic and ready for whatever is next.
What works for me in the play is how obviously in love Paul and Corie are. No matter how flighty Corie's plans are and how exasperated Paul is with her, she wants to make it work for him and he wants to amuse his wife's flights of fancy.
As a tween in a perpetual state of unrequited crush, dreaming of my own little love nest, this play was romantic and fun. I identified with Corie's attempts to make her little apartment a home. I hoped to have a Paul who would stick with me no matter how crazy I was.
I grew older, got married and have had upteen apartments and houses. I saw BITP performed by Kentwood High School in 2009 at a time when we were making do with what we had and needed a reminder that we were in it together. A few details of the play had been updated to reflect modern times, but the heart remained the same. As an adult, I identified with Corie's pluck, Paul's grounded nature, and the wish to have a Paul who would stick with me no matter what.
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