Finished: A Doll's House (Ibsen) and You Never Can Tell (Shaw). Two good, fast-moving plays. A Doll's House was my third Ibsen play, and I must say I've found all three of his plays to be good and non-boring, but rather depressing at the end. In A Doll's House, the wife and mother of the play decides at the end of the play that she's been unhappy in her marriage and went from being a doll to her father, and pleasing him all the time...straight to being a doll for her husband. She decides to leave her husband and young children to find herself. I'm all for the notion that a mother needs to be happy with herself and do things for herself, as well as for her children and husband, but I'm not ok with the notion of a mother leaving her family to do it. Anyway...that play was a bit of a downer.

However...then I read Shaw's You Never Can Tell. What a delightful, fast-paced, witty play! The characters were all simply glorious...even the grouchy ones. All about family, and estranged family coming together by accident, and by circumstance. Instant love, and giddy irreverence, and an amazing waiter! This was exactly what I needed after reading so many depressing and/or intense books the last few weeks. It made me smile and made me wish the play was longer! Shaw is definitely two for two and I'll definitely be reading more of his work. :-)