The Guardian: My beloved and I were married in a theatre. Reader, I popped the question on a leap year by graffiti-ing my local footbridge in chalk, with a layer of hairspray in case it rained. He said yes, after collapsing on his knees in shock. We did the legals in Manchester town hall, followed by a curry (his choice) then a blessing and a shindig in a theatre in London (mine). The theatre is the closest thing I’ve got to church; at least, it’s the place I have frequented from nappies till now, where people come to lend their belief.
3 comments:
I understand how isolating being away from the theater can be. Growing up the only real community I was a part of was my Community theater as there were no synagogues nearby. I was an awkward kid who didn’t know how to make friends and the people in that theater were the only people other than my family I had. They were kind of a lifeline and luckily I was a bit better developed in my social skills before I moved because the isolation that came after loosing that was extremely difficult. So I can completely understand what is being described in this article. Theater was not a choice I made it has always just been what I do, I don’t know what I would do without it. And coming back to it, to actually doing theater after so long has been truly incredible, even though I sometimes complain about it.
Losing a parent can make you reevaluate your life, what you see as important, and your responsibilities to yourself and other people. It was touching to read about the ways Stirling’s mother supported her in her career and was so involved in that very important part of her life. I’m happy that Stirling has been able to return to what she loves, and I agree with her belief that more shocking, experimental. and controversial works are what’s going to bring people fully back as audiences to live entertainment. We have all experienced a form of grief after living through the worst of covid, so her aligning her grief with that of others’ felt very true to life. I also relate to her fondness for the chaos of live entertainment; while some of the situations she describes sound generally unsafe, in retrospect those types of incidents are funny to look back on and learn from.
The story told by Stirling in this article is truly touching in so many ways. As Olivia said, we’ve all lost something (time, person, object etc.) because of the epidemic and I can totally see how Stirling at one point lost two of the most important things in her life at the same time – theatre and her mother. The impact of theatre closing didn’t really impact me directly during the epidemic, but I understand and relate when Stirling says that she really missed the connection between performers and audiences. I personally enjoy being an audience but the reason I decided to pursue this path is more because of the joy it brings to me when I see the audiences reacting to my show. However, as I also lost a family member during the worst of the pandemic, I think Stirling would also appreciate the time she got to spend with her mother because I certainly am grateful for that.
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