Well, I didn't tell you about the Nitrate Hymnal in time for you to see it, but I'll tell you what it was like.

One of the highlights was simply going to the George Washington Masonic National Memorial, which is strange and striking always, but especially when approached at night, winding up slowly around the hill.

We paid-what-we-could for our tickets and waited in the lobby with the rest of the audience for a while. Then we fabricated a need to use the bathroom so we could check out more of the building; we saw an exhibit about the "High Twelve," "like-minded" men who gather for "delightful conversation." I wished I'd paid more attention to the Masonic conspiracy theories my North Carolina friends used to go on about, but all I could think of was The Man Who Would Be King.

Soon the crowd was released from the lobby into a curving hallway approaching the auditorium. Like cattle in a slaughterhouse, we shuffled along complacently, unable to see where we were going. We entered the auditorium: steep and deep-bowled, and (for this performance, or always?) its high ceiling bathed in red lights. In the orchestra at the rear of the stage, I recognized a coworker from the Library's music division on violin. Center stage was a hospital gurney with what looked like a body under a sheet. Much of the pre-show audience conversation centered on the body: Was it real or not? I dismissed these musings as silly -- no normal human could stay still (and seemingly hold their breath!) for the 30 minutes we waited. But I was stunned to find I was wrong, when the spot lit on the gurney, the nurse whipped the sheet off, and the woman gasped and sat up straight, as if waking from a nightmare.

The show began. It was a multimedia production, based on home movies that the creator was given by his grandmother. Sometimes those home movies were projected on the back screen, sometimes newer video, sometimes slides. There were no spoken lines; all dialogue was sung, accompanied by the orchestra.

I was intrigued by the concept of the show, and slightly less enchanted by the actual presentation. For one thing, the show veered far from the true story of the actual family depicted in the movies. The stated purpose was to "fill in the gaps" between the movies, but I would have rather watched a true story told in an original way. Not surprisingly, I loved watching the home movies, which were well-edited for a certain mood and effect, but I'm the kind of person who likes to look at other people's old prom pictures. The white-clad orchestra and the original music were consistently good. The singing was more uneven; the Nurse had an impressive operatic style (and an equally impressive chin) that was not to my taste. The mother, though -- the central character -- had a strong voice that survived being occasionally overpowered by the music. After the death of her son, she had no words, but with her voice conveyed unimaginable anguish.

I suppose I should sum this up somehow . . . I like to see original works (I've never seen anything quite like the Nitrate Hymnal) and real-life storytelling (which this almost was) and projects that unite visuals and voice and storytelling and music (which this was, overall successfully). And now that the show's over, all you have to look at is the website, which lucky for you is very well done.