The universal human condition is one of suffering and it is the Playwright’s moral duty to bring that condition to light on the live stage.
We all struggle to lead a righteous human life — but many of us fail in the end mired in despair and disappointment.
By attending a performance in the darkened theatre, we seek to learn
secrets about our own station that we are too scared and too brittle
to examine in our everyday lives.
In the sanctuary of the live stage, we find reassessment, disgust,
revulsion, joy and sympathy and, in the end, a cathartic release of
emotional toxins and mindful poisonings.
We must learn to accept our suffering and to overcome our want to
become immortal because, in the end, we all wish to be released into
sunlight and not darkness.
That’s a brilliant analysis of the living theater, David. I walk away from plays feeling excellent, most of the time, and with some hope.
I think we find ourselves in our suffering, Gordon. The secret is to not get lost in that darkness. In the live theatre, we have others who know the way out.