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Rhonda:Did you find what you were looking for?
Gus:Im not sure yet.
Ill see how these look on me.
Rhonda:You like plaids.
Gus:I do.
Rhonda:Have you readThe Book of Tea?
Rhonda:The guy who wrote it calls the Tea House The Abode of the Unsymmetrical.
He says repetition is regarded as lack of tact.
Gus (indicating his armful of shirts):I call this variation.
Rhonda:Variations good.
Especially after this winter.
Gus:you could say that again.
Rhonda:That would be repetition.
Did you find what you were looking for?
Well, Rhonda, how long do you have?
For these times, he replies ruefully.
Rhonda pauses and then looks into the invisible mirrorout toward the audiencealong with him.
You mean, she says, do you have a right to be happy?
(Is it a thrift shop?
A boutique with inexplicable taste?
The delightfully chaotic combination of garments on stage provides no answer.)
Theres Gus (James Tigger!
Everyone is a delight, and Shepard is absolutely grand.
Shes weird, a little witchy, and devastatingly blunt.
she snorts when Lilly reveals her lifes work.
All they do is coo and poo and screw.
(After all, how could thefirst everKing of Boylesquebe content with nothing but jeans and plaid flannels?)
How do you know its a he?
Coleen and Grace both consider this.
Im not sure if my feet would spring back or stay put.
Maybe a little of both, muses Coleen.
Maybe, she says, it would depend on who pushed them down.
Theres a beautiful expression that, at some point, passes over the face of everyone inShimmer and Herringbone.
Up atA.R.T., Peregrine Teng HeardsRedemption Storyis also moving through variations on a theme.
Dont break the haze.
And later, still to Billy: Youve got destiny draped across your shoulders like a cape of diamonds.
But Connie cant, or wont, help it.
Along with everybody else inRedemption Story, Conniewants well, its right there in the title.
Thats true in general of the piece, which comes in and out of focus as it goes.
But theres also a two-thirds-of-the-way-there feeling to much ofRedemption Story, especially in Blushs direction.
Shimmer and Herringboneis at Mabou Mines through May 19.Redemption Storyis at A.R.T./New York Theatres through May 19.
