Applegate Inn

For 4 more days, a wonderful performance is at the Unicorn Theater in nearby Stockbridge.

Very appropriate for this exciting election time, and personally engaging for me around issues of gender, the one-woman play “Eleanor” was a wonderful production.

Written by Rhoda Lerman and directed by Stephen Temperley, the play was about the inner growth of

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt. It focused on the years immediately following World War I, as recalled by Eleanor looking back from 1945. It is a very personalized, intimate portrait that carefully avoids political issues directly, but maintains the importance of certain important political ideals.  In the voyage of this woman from self-doubt to confidence, her youthful ideals are challenged by gritty realities, and, instead of the bitterness or cynicism that might have resulted, we witness the tempered, reinforced idealism that emerged in Eleanor Roosevelt.

It is exciting to think of the future of the role of the First Lady. I wonder when, if ever, there will be another woman that has done as much with the role as Eleanor did.

I didn’t know that Eleanor struggled with her husbands infidelities for many years, and also her own insecurities. It is amazing to think that great people like that also struggled with self-confiedence.

There was a wonderful Berkshires crowd there, many with silver hair – those that remember Eleanor clearly! Just another great example of what the wonderful Berkshires area has to offer!