Underneath the Lintel by Glen Berger
Delaware Theatre Company
October 19 - November 6, 2005
General Beauty | Program Letter | Photos
Sets & Lights: Michael Philippi
Costumes: Mattie Ullrich
Sound: Fabian Obispo
Stage Manager: Sara J. Tantillo
Cast: Christopher Coucill
This production was partially inspired by Peter Brook’s Parisian theatre, Theatre des Bouffes du Nord.
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General Beauty
“Would you recognize a miracle if you saw one?” - The Librarian
We all search so desperately for something to give our lives meaning, but in reality it’s there all along. I know this is a cliché, a Hallmark card sentiment, but this play gets that idea across in such an ingenious and quirky way that it becomes beautiful. This play awakes us to that which is there everyday but which we totally ignore. It unlocks the nuclear fission of the everyday moment, and by so doing increases our capacity to savor and enjoy life. If the Librarian can go in one night from totally despairing at the failure of his own life to embracing full-heartedly the miraculous nature of life, wherever it takes you - and finding joy in that - then there is hope for us all. Our lives, too, can turn on a nickel. All it takes is to look up and realize we are standing underneath the miraculous every moment of our lives.
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Program Letter
A few weeks before rehearsals started, I was driving up Concord Pike trying to run five errands when I only had time for two, cursing the traffic, the construction work, the strip malls, and the price of gas, when a small flock of birds soared right over the road in an elegant, twisting arc like a corkscrew on a roller coaster. Suddenly a miracle was performed. Where before there was only aggravation and ugliness, the transit of the birds had created a moment of grace. A miracle.
Miracles are normally thought of as some supernatural magic trick that transcends the laws of nature. But how about this for a definition - “to see the wonder and beauty amidst the mundane and featureless.”
“Look deeper” - it’s a concept I pound home with our Young Critics here at DTC. With these students (check out their reviews on our website), I’m asking them to look beyond knee-jerk reactions of “I liked it” or “I didn't like it” and try to see what is at the bottom of the choices the artists make on our stage. It’s a concept that ties in very well with Underneath the Lintel. The Librarian says, “I was learning to shift my focus, follow the blur in the periphery, look in the margins, in the fringes, for that’s where our man and the Truth have set up shop.”
There is so much to see in this world of ours, if we know where to look. If we do our jobs right, this play will help to train our eyes on that which is there everyday but which we normally totally ignore. Seeing beauty, cultivating a sense of wonder - these are powerful actions. They can turn a traffic-packed urban corridor into avian performance art. Did that moment give my life meaning? I wouldn’t go that far, but it sure was life affirming - and formed, in its own way, a little act of defiance.
I will also not go so far as to suggest that the next ninety minutes or so will consist of a miraculous event. But I do hope it serves as an invitation to consider the miraculous in your own life. What was the last event in your life that you would define as a miracle? Can't think of one? Look deeper. The moments are there.
I hope you enjoy your time with the Librarian. Feel free to send me an email (dstradley@delawaretheatre.org) with your thoughts about the play and any stories about unnoticed miracles that perhaps you’ve seen lately.
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