At the Huntington Theater: Vincent Randazzo, Avanthika Srinivasan in The Triumph of Love; directed by Loretta Greco; photo by Liza Voll
It seems like the right thing to do during times like these is to start every communication with an acknowledgement that what is happening in our world is terrible, wrongheaded and soul crushing.
So yes, that’s the place to start.
What matters most–and how we articulate that mattering—is foremost in my mind every day.
The inimitable Donna Haraway captures that so well in her immortal quote:
“It matters what matters we use to think other matters with; it matters what stories we tell to tell other stories with; it matters what knots knot knots, what thoughts think thoughts, what ties tie ties. It matters what stories make worlds, what worlds make stories.”
Now that our human information ecosystem has been corrupted and fragmented, who you pay attention to matters more than ever. One of my steady stalwarts, Rebecca Solnit, started a new platform for sharing her writing. The name is a good one: Meditations in an Emergency
In her introduction she writes:
“It’s worth noting that the word emergency is built out of emerge, as in to exit or rise out of something, the opposite of merge, when things come together. An emergency is when things come apart–it can be breakage but also opening. and it’s related to the words emergence and emergent. ‘Emergence is the way complex systems and patterns arise out of multiplicity of simple interactions,’ writes Adrienne Maree Brown in her book Emergent Strategy.”
Solnit also references Michelle Alexander who wrote in 2018 that we are not the resistance—THEY are. Using the metaphor of rivers and damns, Alexander points to the fact that we are not trying to damn the river of change. That’s what they are doing.
“This most recent election represents a surge of resistance to this rapidly swelling river, an effort to build not just a wall but a dam. A new nation is struggling to be born, a multiracial, multiethnic, multifaith, egalitarian democracy in which every life and every voice truly matters.”
Framing our current situation in this way makes it easier to see why community has become a powerful defense in the face of the perpetual assault of bad, stupid and hurtful news. Community is what happens when individuals share a common concern for something they value highly, like a belief system or the love of a particular landscape. But it can also happen on the fly, and often with strangers.
I have felt that jolt of reaffirming connection—more valued than ever before in my life—at a variety of recent events where passion for human creative expression creates a shared value. I felt it at a crowded opening for a new show of paintings. At a night of live local music held in a former church on a hilltop in New Hampshire. At a wildly satisfying night of theater where everyone in the audience was laughing and full of mirth.
Art viewing and live music listening will continue for me, but there’s a time stamp on you being able to see the absolutely terrific Triumph of Love at the Huntington Theater (through April 6.) While you might not normally run to see a vintage commedia dell’arte style play written in 18th century France, this is one you don’t want to miss.
And here’s why.
Stephen Wadsworth. This gifted director and translator has taken an antiquated play and adapted it into comprehensible contemporary parlance. It is fast, sharp, witty, and completely understandable. (American Theatre Magazine referred to this play as “the greatest play that Shakespeare and Molière never wrote.” But as my companion Tina Feingold pointed out, the language of Shakespeare requires careful listening for the 21st century ear, and that can be arduous. This play has no language comprehension barriers, so connection with the story is effortless.)
Loretta Greco. The fireball Artistic Director of the Huntington who has transformed the Boston theater scene with her energy and vision is also, not surprisingly, a gifted director.
The entire cast. (Allison Altman, Avanthika Srinivasan, Vincent Randazzo, Patrick Kerr, Rob Kellogg, Marianna Bassham, Nael Nacer) Everyone in this production is terrific. Diction, delivery, flow, characterization. So good!
If you are in the Boston area, don’t miss this. Theater this good is part of our ongoing project to create a “multiracial, multiethnic, multifaith, egalitarian democracy in which every life and every voice truly matters.”