Zach Canon ‘16 – Tonight, we attended an original piece called, The Wild Bride, performed by the KneeHigh Theatre Company out of the U.K..
In one word, it was Phenomenal, Amazing, Outstanding, Superb, Wow and It’s Not Fair That They Have That Much Talent.
This story is all about a girl battling through the ups and downs of life, struggling and persevering, and finding joy amidst it all. With a live band on stage played by the actors themselves, the entire rhythm of the play was based on the bluegrass/folk music being played. This original text was well crafted and the acting/musicianship was mesmerizing. From moment to moment I found myself shifting from uncomfortable to amused, excited to fearful, and a slew of other conflicting emotions. In fact, in a conversation with one of the leading actresses following the show, I praised her for her performance and said that she made me feel sick to my stomach. Upon hearing that, she keeled over in laughter and said, “I love it when I make people sick to their stomach!” In an unfair summation, the play was raw, thought provoking, challenging, aesthetically and kinesthetically pleasing, and moving.
In the afternoon prior to the show, truthfully, and as my mother would say, “For the first time in my life,” I was left speechless at Ground Zero. We stood in the presence of a graveyard yet basked in a site of much hope. Two waterfalls etched in the footprints of the twin towers flowed downward eventually making its way into what seemed like a bottomless pit. The pit was haunting. It was as if the dreams of every name honored around the edges of the waterfall accompanied the drops of water as the drops headed down the pit. I found myself wanting to jump in, get closer, and examine the contents of the pit… but I couldn’t. This gnawed at me. I was helpless in the same way I was as an eight-year old watching the events unfold. As Dr. Cherry phrased it, 9/11 could very well be the most important American event in our lifetimes.
