Wistfulness

On the few occasions Diana did talk about being Queen, it was either accompanied by gales of laughter at such a preposterous idea or a wistfulness at the prospect of what might have been: not least wearing what she called ‘all those Cinderella dresses’.

Both entertaining and laced with a poignant wistfulness, the regional co-production features some of the director’s longtime collaborators in the cast and crew.

It was his wistfulness for his small Southern hometown that inspired “Home,” a production of the celebrated Negro Ensemble Company that opened at the St. Marks Playhouse in Manhattan six years later before moving to Broadway.

The show takes the somewhat nebulous events of the book and, while still trafficking in plenty of flashy self-referential effects, presents a more conventional, linear plot with a jokey, sardonic style that replaces the book’s wistfulness.

His departure has left us with tremendous wistfulness and sorrow,” she wrote.

Yet there was more than a sense of wistfulness about times gone by.