Friday afternoon
Me: We’re going to a play tonight, Mark. I need you to remember, it’s a play. They have lines. You can’t be shouting advice at the characters. The people in the audience don’t like it. You just can’t.
Mark (scoffing): I’m in middle school now, Mom. I know.
Friday evening
Eliza Doolittle (paraphrased): You are a jerk and I can get along without you.
Henry Higgins (paraphrased): Ha, ha. Good one. Great joke. Now come home.
Eliza (paraphrased, singing): The world gets along without you. Stuff happens without you making it happen. Even important stuff. So sod off, Henry Higgins.
Henry: (paraphrased): Ha! Hahaha! I am a professor and I can argue this turn of events so I still look good! You’re acting like a forceful independent person and it’s all thanks to ME.
Eliza stalks over to Henry. Stands before him. Tense moment of silence.
Mark: SLAP HIM!
Guffaws in the audience around us, craning heads in the audience across the theater as people try to work out what was funny.
Sorry, Olney Theatre. We’re working it, I swear.