This is another one I found from the Ted-Ed youtube playlist – and their video gives a much deeper and well developed interoperation of what it meant to me.
Two men are waiting, when they got tired of waiting , they decided to wait some more.
I am unable to recall a time in which I read a play in my adult life; although I am forced to believe that I, at some point, did so as a child in school. I found myself reading the dialog entirely too fast, unable to deliberately slow myself down. The short lines between characters, often just a few words or less – blended well with the voices I hear in my head when reading.
My favorite imagery from this play was the description of sunset
- Qua sky. It is a pale and luminous like any sky at this hour of the day. [Pause.] In these latitudes. [Pause.] When the weather is fine. [Lyrical.] An hour ago [he looks at his watch, prosaic {lacking poetic beauty}] roughly [lyrical] after having poured forth even since [he hesitates, prosaic] say ten o’clock in the morning [lyrical] tirelessly torrents of red and white light it begins to lose its effulgence, to grow pale [gesture of the two hands lapsing by stages] pale, ever a little paler, a little paler until [dramatic pause, ample gesture of the two hands flung wide apart] pppfff! it comes to rest. But – [hand raised in admonition] – but behind this veil of gentleness and peace night is charging [vibrantly] and will burst upon us [snaps his fingers] pop! like that! [his inspiration leave him] just when we lease expect it. [Silence. Gloomily.] That’s how it is on this bitch of an earth.
The extra emphasis provided by the [bracketed] stage direction really helped me visualize while reading this play. The back cover of the book claims; “One of the most noble and moving plays f our generation, a threnody of home deceived and deferred but never extinguished; a play suffused with tenderness for the while human perplexity; with phrases that come like a sharp stab of beauty and pain” -The times (London), which I think is a bold statement, but maybe that is just because I don’t get it.
Still – I am grateful for the opportunity to expand my views on the world, especially when it comes to the art of story telling.
Perspective is key 