Pericles

It's amazing how Calshakes, almost without fail, makes my heart rise. I cannot think of any better way to spend an evening than seeing a production in that amphitheater. The smell of the eucalyptus as you climb through the forest, the strings of lights, people bundled up holding steamy beverages, the rolling hills in the background, and the twilight sky that gradually fades into a starry ink. This is just added atmosphere. There is a magic on the stage itself, the potential of held breath, which could soar out as a sigh, scream, or song. I remember that night, after seeing Restoration Comedy, how perfect I felt. I walked around the theater, ran my hand along the edge of the stage, through the entire space, feeling the full emptiness of it, and laughing out of sheer joy.
Purpose is a wonderful thing. Knowledge of intention itself. For a moment, it can make you feel almost invincible. Especially, I think, when you're young. I can't say for sure though, as I've never been anything but young.
Tonight's performance was of Pericles. The center of the set involved a gnarled tree of an archway, with oriental sort of rugs and drapings to either side of it. The play was a Shakespearean fairytale, a tragicomical odyssey. What could be better than that? It's a later play, so the writing makes lifts you, even as William plays with the nature of storytelling in a time where surreality and the mixing of the tragic and comic were considered taboo by the established rules of theater (according to the program notes.)
I think part of what I love is how alive their theater is. There is such a sense of community there, you recognize the actors, and you know that they are children playing pretend, just like the rest of us. The sound and lighting design was incredible. It did not look like the ocean actually does, but it felt like the ocean, and that is what most film directors don't know how to do.
Pericles says to Marina, emphatically, "Tell thy story!" I think that sentiment is much of what lent the play so much power. For one thing, I've never seen a Shakespeare play with a narrator. I mean, he might bring one in for an introduction or epilogue in some cases, but this one was an integral part of the story. He was my favorite character.
Really, seeing plays there is rejuvenating. It reminds me of who I am, or rather, who I want to be, because it shows me what I aim to do. There is no other theater I have been to that embodies living story so well. I hope that someday I will be given the chance to act on that stage.
I want to spin fiction that is truer than life itself.