Consciousness, Literature and the Arts
Archive
Volume 11 Number 3, December 2010
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JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS
Visible Fictions Theatre from Scotland
at the Manitoba Theatre for Young People, 2010
they’re really just boys playing those two men on the stage
men playing boys playing with their toy trunk, action figures
of the Argonauts (with Spiderman thrown in here and there)
and their huge wagon that turns into whatever is needed
like ship and jail cell and dragon’s lair
yesterday’s snowfall stayed thickly on the ground
and in the morning, Michael told me, my granddaughter
of four threw herself into it and made angels
and at Shabbat dinner my grandson of six
having heard that ginger is good for you
wanted to have confirmed that this extended
to his gingerbread man he was having for dessert
Robert Jack and Tim Settle of Visible Fictions
excited us all kids and adults in the audience
embodying Bacchic pretence and letting go
into another world where you can be yourself
your friend, Jason and all the Argonauts
and Medea and Kings and servants and and and
and your friend can be all of those too
as long as you take turns and the story moves forward
and I went backward to my old backyard
with my teepee and its small fire place
and listening to Radio Luxembourg
on the transistor radio my father built for me
and going on dangerous scouting missions
in the fields behind our house
being prepared for new houses
with cavernous foundation holes
that could swallow you up and dissolve
you in their mud
just two of them there, Jack and Settle
on stage reminding us, showing us
that Dionysus can still hold us in his thrall
and when we let him have his due he will
fill us with awe and the sense that the possible
can be made visible right here right now