ON THEATRE, POETRY AND LIVING LIFE FULLY

Theatre is a means of entering more fully into life.  So, too, is poetry.  When they come together as they did for me this weekend, I felt it.

Friday night I saw Thorton Wilder's "Our Town," Barrow Street Theater, after an interlude of many years. What a difference some years make!  

I knew "the story."  Wilder's message, in this meditation on mortality, was to make sacraments of the simple things recognizing that life is precious and ordinary.  It is a simple message.  This time, however, I experienced  a confluence of forces and the impact was anything but simple.  

The directing by David Cromer, who also played the role of Stage Manager, was pointed, engaging and sensory-rich.  The roles of Emily Webb and George Gibbs were played by actors who made the simple things poignant and heartfelt.  Feelings were heightened and insights, too.  The final blackout was extraordinarily dark.  It was in short a magnificent night in the theatre.

The second part of this one-two punch showed up in a poem by Mary Oliver:

          To live in this world

          you must be able

          to do three things:

          to love what is mortal;

          to hold it

          against your bones knowing

          your own life depends on it;

          and, when the time comes to let it go,

          to let it go.