Mistral, reviewed by Marc Foster

Good Food, Good Friends, Great Time by Marc Foster

            The Mistral restaurant is a high end French restaurant located in Boston. Walking into the restaurant there is a sense of formality, and precision to the atmosphere. The guests, the waiters everybody is dressed up. The waiter came around and collected our glasses that we did not need. Effortlessly he fitted around 12 glasses into his hand, without dropping a single one, while also explaining the menu to us. The menu was fantastic, and I kept on changing my order in my head.

            For an appetizer, I had a squash mushroom pizza. The squash made the pizza sweet and the cheese and mushroom had just enough savory in it to not make the pizza taste like a dessert. After having the appetizer I was very excited for the entrée.

            The food came out relatively fast. The waiters in between politely cleaned up our places and filled our drinks. On seeing what other people got I envied their choices. However, when the rack of lamb was put onto my place I immediately knew I had gotten the right choice. The lamb was perfectly cooked, and since I had never had lamb before it was perfect way to introduce myself to this meat. The portions were perfect, not too big and not too small. I was not overly full and after my entrée I knew there was room for dessert.

            The waiters came around and gave us the dessert menu, politely asking us if we had any questions. The waiters were perfectly politely and made enough small talk for us to get to know them but not for them to intrude on our meal. I decided on dessert, get an apple crostada. It came just as quickly as the rest of the meal, and was warm and perfectly cooked. The food was so well presented that it was hard to eat it first, but when I took the first bite no one could stop me from finishing everything.

            The meal was fantastic. The lighting was perfect at the beginning, a little too dark by the end, but not enough to not enjoy conversation with friends. I would highly recommend this restaurant. The atmosphere, food, and décor all invite for a very good time. 

A Raisin in the Sun by Marc Foster

A Raisin in the Sun by Marc Foster

“Once upon a time, liberty was life but now it’s money” says Lena Younger, played by Kimberly Scott, in the play A Raisin in the Sun. A Raisin in the Sun, written by Lorrain Hansberry, is a play about a black family struggling with money, pride, and independence. The play takes place somewhere between World War Two and 1959. The whole play is set in the house of the Younger family. In response to this play Bruce Norris wrote the play Clybourne Park about the house before the Younger family moved in and about the house after the Younger family moved in, in modern times.

            Both plays have a different perspective for the issue of racism. Raisin in the Sun took the point of view of a black family in the early 1900s and Clybourne Park focused on the point of view of whites in the early 1900s and early 2000s. Both plays addressed race issues. Raisin in the Sun focused on race and culture the whole time while Clybourne Park had a few side plots that strayed from the main issue of racism.

            Clybourne Park was split into two acts, both taking place in a house in Clybourne Park, Chicago. The first act was about a white family that was moving out of the house because their son had killed himself there. The central conflict for that family is not race related at all. The son killed himself because he had fought in Korea and was accused of killing innocent people. This stray from the main issue of racism helped to emphasize that racism is outdated and needs to end.

            Russ, played by Thomas Derrah, is the father of the son who killed himself. His character could not have given a care in the world about the issue he had created in selling the house to a black family for the Clybourne Park neighborhood. For the audience it seemed like he did not care because he thought racism irrelevant to his issues. That is what this play is trying to say, is that racism is irrelevant. Not irrelevant in the way that we ignore it, but irrelevant in the way that at this point in history it is keeping us from ever progressing. People need to get over their prejudices is what the actors, and Russ were trying to say in this play.

            Some people thought the conflict with the son was distracting from the main issue but I thought the son accented the stupidity and close-mindedness of racism. The father was angry at his neighborhood for closing his son off to their community and for leading him to his death. This character made the audience think about the real importance of community and friendship, no matter the race or gender. I highly recommend going to this show to experience this new perspective on racism.