I’ve been watching The Bridge Theatre version of The Midsummer Night Dream. I’ve yet to see the Pyrasmus and Thisbe there, but in the meantime some comments of my own and Peter Brook.

Interestingly, he has compared The Seagull’s Konstantin play to the Rude Mechanicals in The Dream. Brook says that it is a celebration on acting profession, of playing the roles that matters in that Tragical Funny Lamentable Romance that Pyrasmus and Thisbe is. It is not to be played for laughs – not entirely. It is not a lewd moment in between the lofty Athenians and magical fairies, but true, touching and relevant.  Well shone, moon, well roared, lion, well run Thisbe.

“All is well and all shall be well and all the manners of things shall be well.” St Julian spiritual comment comes to mind spontaneously.  The ending of The Seagull when Konstantin and Nina recall his early play always gives me thrills – and even the stupid play in the beginning. I don’t know why. It is just so heart-breaking.

“Do you remember, [She recites] “All men and beasts, lions, eagles, and quails, horned stags, geese, spiders, silent fish that inhabit the waves, starfish from the sea, and creatures invisible to the eye—in one word, life—all, all life, completing the dreary round set before it, has died out at last. A thousand years have passed since the earth last bore a living creature on its breast, and the unhappy moon now lights her lamp in vain. No longer are the cries of storks heard in the meadows, or the drone of beetles in the groves of limes——”

I often get the same vibrations from hearing Genesis Ch. One, when the creatures of sea are created. I know Darwin and modern science, and all the reasons why this silly creating order is in The Bible (to impress and to offer knowledge and explanation for the ancient people not yet aware of scientific facts) – but yet it makes me tremble. I have sung Aaron Copland “In the Beginning” – and it was a love fest.

So, here are some Brook comments on these ideas: