Monday 28 June 2010

Dawn in Harlem and Wordsworth's Sonnet

The taxi driver, a Peruvian who has been in NYC since 1949, who was taking me from my Manhattan hotel, West Side Studios to John Kennedy Airport around 5 o'clock of the dawn of the 4th August 2004, drove through Harlem. Harlem at dawn, like Wesminster Bridge in Wordsworth's sonnet, is so quiet, friendly, peaceful and really beautiful. If I were a stage producer I would spend a million dollars on staging Harlem to arouse this sense in the audience about Harlem, just like Barry Jackson who spent 5 thousand pounds to produce the sunset in Bernard Shaw's CAPTAIN BRASSBOUND'S CONVERSION. The taxi driver played guide telling me about significant places in the area which included an office of President Bill Clinton on the third floor of a building. When he halted at the traffic light, I saw a building in the corner on which was written something to the effect of "A Worship Place for Jews, Christians and Moslems". Also I saw written, "We will be in your neighborhood soon." Indeed, it is a heart warming phenomenon to see the peoples of the world come to terms with each other. But, alas, the speech of de Sade at the very end of MARAT/SADE is also true when the Marquis shouts to the audience inside and outside the play, "You will never understand." He means humanity will never understand how to live in peace and harmony as mentioned in one of the lyrics earlier in the play. The motto of the play is this, "You will never understand." After Time Square incident in May, 2010, I join the Chorus in Aeschylus' ORESTEIA in its chant, "Cry sorrow, sorrow, yet let good prevail."

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