Consciousness, Literature and the Arts
Archive
Volume 12 Number 1, April 2011
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ONE OF OURS
by Michael Nathanson, WJT, 2011
Art Theatre was re-awakened
last night at the Winnipeg Jewish Theatre
after such a long slumber finally
a production with an aesthetic
loud and clear – no frakin’ frillies
the hall stirred with a simple white set
and a few pieces of white furniture
brightly lit, the lip of the stage
extending into the auditorium
and four actors carried the weight
in sunny costumes denoting
social rank, while engaging
each other and us, pursuing
their goals with wit and abandon
scoring, winning, loosing
in the game of life that can’t
be lived as a game
in the face of the dazzling
demand of love – trust me
and I will trust you back
this clean, sparse space
landed us in imaginative opulence
and entitlement, unmasked
by the intruder Lily (for Lilith
the necessary temptress, who rouses
our passions and lights our values)
and nothing can ever be
quite the same again