As the weather around here becomes more unbearable, little ways to divert yourself can become important. Nighttime is not a problem. You can take care of that by accepting every invitation that comes your way. Midday is another matter. What to do about lunch? So far, we have tried having it with different sets of people; we have tried having it with the same set of people; we have tried having it alone; we have tried not having it at all. Just the other day, we tried having our lunch while watching a Theatre at Noon production of Maria Irene Fornes’ play Dr. Kheal at St. Peter’s Church, which is on East Fifty-sixth Street, and this new way of having lunch was far better than anything else we had tried.
There are two shows put on every weekday—one at a quarter past twelve and the other at a quarter past one. We took the early show. We got to St. Peter’s at noon sharp, taking our lunch along, as we had been given to understand we should do. At the door, we learned that there was no admission
charge but that donations were invited. We made our donation, walked in with a sandwich (ham salad) and a soft drink (ginger beer), and hoped for a good time. We got a good time. First of all, the theatre is a dimly lighted room with about fifteen medium-sized round tables, a red tablecloth on each table, and four chairs to each table. When we got there, about ten couples were already seated and were unpacking or eating their lunches. It was very cozy and comfortable-looking. We thought we would wait until the show got under way before we had our lunch, and then we were sorry, because we laughed so much. The show began with a man reading this from a piece of paper: “It is with great pleasure that I welcome Dr. Kheal to Theatre at Noon today. With this visit, Dr. Kheal is completing a cross-country lecture tour, which has taken him to more than fifty universities and colleges. After this lecture Dr. Kheal will be returning to Harvard, where he will resume his position as Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Mathematics. I am proud to introduce—Dr. Kheal.” Dr. Kheal came onstage. Dr. Kheal, played by a talented young actor named Richard Hamburger, was wearing formal evening clothes and white shoes with red shoelaces. He looked quite comical. Then he started to act quite comical. He walked over to a blackboard that was already on the stage, drew a large square on it, and wrote in the square lecture topics like “On Poetry,” “On Ambition,” “On Energy,” and “On Truth.” All in all, Dr. Kheal—or Richard Hamburger—was a funny man. Also, he said very funny things. The thing he said that we liked best
was on the subject of energy. He said, “How does one do a million small things? One at a time. How does one do a million big things? One at a time. How does one do one big thing? Never.”
—February 16, 1976