Last year I had the misfortune of seeing Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, winner of the 2013 Tony Award for Best Play. I left it seething--and was just reminded of this because Arena Stage has it in their 2015 season and is advertising it in glowing terms--for many reasons, but perhaps the biggest was that Act II features a (I shit you not) ten minute long rant about how life was better when we were young and we licked our stamps! The main point of which seems to be that it was better when there were only three channels of television and movies were events and all the media was controlled by and created for white men. Which is a particularly ironic position for the openly gay Christopher Durang to take, but in a play with an actual Magic Nego (nope, still not kidding) I suppose I shouldn't expect self-awareness of any kind. Ugh. Ugh, ugh, ugh.