Monday, February 16, 2015

At the Wake of the Earth-Shaker


"You can stop watching me now. I won't perform for you anymore."

 Smile, or Wedpolkm, commonly interpreted as the modernist values protecting humanity from the cold grips of nature, has been murdered. The gods mourn him for no benefit besides one last attempt to keep their spirits up. Lazarus comes to confront Selkie, who had been responsible for his suffering as Dionysus in The Endless Obsession. He doesn't get to. The Birchman is the only god to truly mourn their fallen friend. Hades keeps tradition going the best he can. Selkie comes apart at the seams. And the Cremator, the true defender of sanity, watches with shame as his acquaintances carry on the carnival rather than prepare for the things Smile's death is harbinger to.

Perhaps the best way to sum it up is to simply say that the play ends with an empty set, as the gods flee the pyre thanks to the Night Owl's threat-- not even a vindicated Cremator, last to exit, dares to speak. The old world has gone. All that is left are larks and the ominous owl. Earth is home to the birds at last.

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