Lovers and Madmen extracts from Shakespeare's plays, directed by Paul Mitri Main Theater, New Falaki Building, AUC October 9 and 10. No doubt soon enough the fallout from the WTC disaster shall take its toll, the government and commercial theaters will capitalize on the incident, and we shall be subjected to a number of abysmal plays with dubious political messages. While it would not be accurate to say that Anouilh was ahead of his time, his plays display a sensibility that is very close to the way we think and feel today. Many of the plays for which he was most famous, like Antigone , looked at classical texts with a slant relevant to his time, much as we do today. Despite a veneer of lightness and comedy, a certain sadness trembles beneath the surface of his plays, and he gives us poignant moments that seem to illuminate the nature of life, joy, and suffering, and are true for all time.
Traveler is a case in point.
It portrays Gaston, a soldier who returns home after losing his memory in the war. He comes to the conclusion that his amnesia was a heaven-sent opportunity to be reborn. Gaston is a contemporary Everyman who rediscovers the nature of vice in himself, except unlike Everyman, who committed sins against God, Gaston committed crimes against other living creatures. Nothing is quite so heartbreaking as the process of discovery, where his proud family regales him with stories of his past cruelties and Gaston reacts incredulously . Like him, we too need to be reborn, to purge hate and ugliness from ourselves.