I bought tickets, got a babysitter, and headed via ferry on a warm sunny afternoon in late April to West Seattle, and went to see what was arguably one of the best plays I have seen in years, while actually getting to (almost) fulfill one of my life long dreams.

So, when I discovered that someone had actually written a play addressing just such a fantasy, and that it was coming to Kenyon Hall, a venue not too far from my home, I was absolutely ecstatic. In spite of this, whenever I read one of her quotes, re-read one of her stories, or hear an account of one of those legendary lunches, I cannot help but wonder what it might have been like to actually meet and speak to her. In point of fact, it would more than likely have been uncomfortable and embarrassing spectacle of an insanely talented woman slowly drink herself to death while badmouthing everyone she had ever known, cared about, or worked with. Parker in person (had she not died before I was even born) may not have been quite the glamorously wit filled experience my 23 year old self so innocently believed. Parker’s collected works, on stage at The Portable Dorothy Parker.Īs I have grown older, and read more about her life, and its often self-destructive nature, I have come to understand that perhaps meeting Mrs. Parker’s short stories and poems are amongst the most poignant I have ever read.Ī stack of Mrs. Largely autobiographical, or inspired by the events of friends and enemies alike, Mrs. Parker’s versus and prose (as I would later learn), there was also a sincere honesty, and at times, even vulnerability that was as entertaining as it was occasionally gut wrenching. In fact, it is more for these cutting remarks and quotations that she is remembered than for her written works. Parker perfected the art of verbal evisceration with a legendary stream of singled lined comments and quips. However, with her dead pan delivery and tiny stature, Mrs. Such wit, sarcasm, cynicism were, as I learned, the winning trifecta sought by every member of the Round Table, a group of young writers who famously used to met daily for lunch in the Algonquin Hotel Dining Room.

A friend of mine was reading the Portable Dorothy Parker for a book club and said she thought I might enjoy it. Parker since the very first time I was introduced to her work.

The portable dorothy parker