Characters at play… I was going to write a load of waffle about browsing the campus library years ago as a student, looking for a play to explore and direct. I did write a few paragraphs about how our days are surrounded by the theatrics of our lives. How life’s stages are filled with sets, props, and characters. Our minds are filled with scripts, narratives, subtext, and routines. The constructions around us; our habits, our favourites, our choices, our vocabulary, our acquaintances, our attitude, our responses… All part of the theatre of our lives.
I was thinking about how we embellish, enhance and enchant our lives. We imbibe our chosen feel good foods, impulse buys and guilty pleasures. We assimilate ideas, philosophies, promises and traditions. We are entertained by new stories, we are empowered by tunes and mantra, we are informed by polemics, fear, doubt and hope. Framed by our chosen station, our favourite coat, or our familiar chair, popular distractions infuse the working week, blockbusting entertainment punctuates the normal. But…
But, with all the theatrics above in motion, I cycled to the village for pies from the butcher, I had coffee and a chat in the church cafe, then cycled home to make bread. How much more middle-aged, middle-England, middle-class can I be? I have even descaled the coffee machine. I have just spent a well overdue two days with the family, walking, picnicking and generally chilling out together – Thank you Universe!
However, my Saturday morning’s warming visit to a coffee shop, is scripts away from a today’s meeting with BD and cold thoughts of value.
Perhaps we may never know how the world might work unless we stop directing, and allow ourselves a part in the play. Breathe, feel, re-act… ignore the expectations of the audience, and the ambitions of the cast…
Characters at play.
Jules P Richards 