I am one of those people that does not like Valentine’s Day. One of those people who dread the holiday and the inevitable questions it brings. However, this Valentine’s day I embraced the jaded and happily single girl that I am, sucked it up and went out to a show.
Logic, Luck, and Love: A Valentine’s Day Special was shown at Atlas Performing Arts Center by SpeakeasyDC on February 14. This show featured a stage, four folding chairs, four storytellers, and an audience that provided an amazing laugh track. The four storytellers seemingly came from the diverse background: a straight, divorced, now single woman who had not given up on herself or hope, a lesbian finding love in unsuspecting places, a gay man with the constant thought that there has to be something better out there for him, and a straight man jaded from his past of limited love. Local DC residents, Jennifer Moore, Molly Kelly, John Kevin Boggs, and Dustin Fisher, each have their own story to share, pulling in local DC mention, pop-culture references, and each individual tale blends together with a navigable flare. Moreover, the stories shared are not only told to the audience, but are felt by the audience.
The beauty and tragedy of listening to stories about love is that it is unexplainable and yet everyone understands it, and has probably lived it as well. While the audience listened to each tale, I’m sure, knowing the odds of seeing a show on H St., there were most likely an equal divide between straight men and women, gay men and women and probably a bunch of people somewhere in between.
It didn’t matter which storyteller happened to be sharing because we understood where they were coming from. Everyone has that less-than-perfect kiss, but we convince ourselves otherwise. Everyone awkwardly hits on the prettiest person in the bar and settles for the second… or third. Everyone has been ditched for someone else and made the wrong choice without knowing it until it was over. I know we have all created our own logic to disprove fate and explain why we always seemed to pull the short stick.
The very best thing about this Valentine’s Day show for me was the raw truth behind it. Each storyteller put him or herself up on that stage and shared their lives with an audience of strangers. They shared their funniest moments of their love lives. They shared the little antidotes and details. They shared their disappointments. The stories were not extraordinarily different or extreme in any way, but they were unique. The storytellers took ownership and let them out in an eloquent and relatable approach.
So what began as my excuse of not NOT celebrating Valentine’s Day night, actually turned into a noteworthy and memorable experience.
If SpeakeasyDC’s next show is anything like this one, I highly recommend attending.
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