Slanted Stories

The Winter’s Tale (Photo courtesy of Commonwealth Shakespeare Company)

Tell all the truth but tell it slant —
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth’s superb surprise
As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind —

This famous 8 line poem by Emily Dickinson is the inspiration for the next exhibition of the Pell Lucy artist collective. Slant and Dazzle will be on view during November at the Grimshaw-Gudewicz Art Gallery at Bristol College in Fall River MA.

In coming up with that title, I came to regard this poem as something of a touchstone. This summer I have asked the question many times, what does Dickinson really mean by the phrase, “tell all the truth but tell it slant?” And how exactly to you find your way to dazzle, whether gradually or otherwise?

Those questions have informed and directed my time in the studio, and they have spilled over into the way I perceive  other artistic endeavors. I have come to the sense that “telling it slant” is a slogan that helps us stay close to what is true and real, but to do so on our own unabashed terms. Telling it slant embraces it all, what works well and what does not. Missteps and failures have their place in that slanted telling too.

Going off-kilter can lead to something new, to what you haven’t seen, heard or read before. It is like allowing a portal to appear. And given the off-kilter times we are in, paying close attention to where those portals may occur has become valuable.

Certainly there was a portal opening and some powerful “tell all the truth but tell it slant” intentionality in the extraordinary, over the top, best ever Paris Olympics opening ceremony on July 26. Artistic director Thomas Jolly bypassed the longstanding tradition of Olympic opening ceremonies that take place inside arenas and made the entire city of Paris his stage instead. (The extent of this vision is hard to describe. If you didn’t see the performance, I recommend that you search online for highlights.)

Conditions for an event of this scope were not perfect. “We’ve been working on this ceremony for almost two years, and we couldn’t have imagined yesterday morning that we’d have an extra guest in the form of rain,” Jolly said. “You know the motto of Paris? ‘Fluctuat nec mergitur.’ It means ‘beaten by the waves but doesn’t sink.’” He went on to quote Seneca: “Life is not about waiting for storms to pass, but about learning to dance in the rain.” And dance in the rain they did, thousands of them.

Jolly has described France as “a long story — a story that keeps expanding and rewriting itself and is very much alive.” Telling that French slant story, and telling it with dazzle: Done and done.

A “tell it slant” portal of a different nature opened for me with Miranda July’s latest novel, All Fours. Her take on a long story that “keeps expanding and rewriting itself and is very much alive” focuses on being female: bodies, motherhood, relationships, sexuality, perimenopause, the emotional evolution of a woman’s life. This book is a category buster: novel, autofiction, memoir, speculative fiction. But regardless of its interstitiality it is imagination-rich, imagination-wacky, unabashedly frank, fearless and quirky. Like the rain that wasn’t planned in Paris, the flaws get sewn into its whole cloth. And while It was not written for the general audience that watched Jolly’s spectacular extravaganza, it is its own particular portal into slant and dazzle.

Beloved bard Shakespeare could be reasonably situated somewhere between the specialized world of July and the populist accessibility of Jolly’s extravagant celebration. Within the Shakespearian domain, The Winter’s Tale has been treated as a “problem play.” It doesn’t fit into one particular category–comedy, tragedy, or history. The first three acts appear to be heading towards a tragic outcome, but then the last two acts are comedic and end happily. Time, place and action are fluid, and even magic plays into the story. These disparate elements make it challenging to produce, and many just move on to Shakespeare’s better known works.

Bryn Boice, Associate Artistic Director of Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, writes that The Winter’s Tale has “lived in my mind and heart for decades.” So in her Free Shakespeare on the Boston Common directorial debut, this was the play she chose.

“It’s as if Shakespeare, here at the near end of his writing career, had decided that the rules created by scholars and forefathers were something to challenge. Let’s move forward 16 years. Let’s go visit that other country. Let’s get to know our supporting characters. The audience can handle it! What good are all these rules?!”

Boice contends that Shakespeare wrote The Winter’s Tale when he was at the height of his writing skills. “He understands the power of his poetry, rhythm, and meter, and breaks its rules over and over again to mimic the cracking psyche of his main character, Leontes..The rule-breaking and problem-making create a world that I find exciting—and recognizable.”

In this 28th production of Free Shakespeare on Boston Common, Boice and her team breathe vitality and life into this “tell it slant” play. And yes, it is a story that feels uncannily familiar: Two countries. Two kings. One becomes deranged, destroying everything in his grasp. Forgiveness and reconciliation come to fruition. Families and loved ones are reunited. And not meaning to sound too self serving, the women characters are the moral core of the play, giving some of the most enlightened pronouncements in all of Shakespeare’s works. Take that as you will.

In addition to the seasoned mastery of Marianna Bassham (Hermione,) Nael Nacer (Leontes) Omar Robinson (Polixenes) and the ever beloved Paula Plum (in multiple roles,) the scenic designs of James J. Fenton enable the play to move effortlessly from the cold minimalism of Sicilia to the lively exuberance of Bohemia. The clowning bits and an unforgettable adaptation of the sheep shearing scene (I’ll never hear those words the same again!) all contribute to a production of a play you may not know but one you don’t want to miss.

On a personal note, I want to say thanks to Steven Maler and his team for keeping this tradition of free Shakespeare every summer in Boston alive and vital for 28 years. It means so much to many of us, and keeping this tradition robust is its own very astounding feat.

The Winter’s Tale
Commonwealth Shakespeare Company
Boston Common
Through August 4