Restless and Happy

Paint My Eyes
by Jamie Erekson
directed by George D. Nelson
BYU
November 22, 2014

I count it an excellent day at the theater when I leave feeling restless.  In this case, my brain was so restless that I didn't even mind getting caught in the post-football-game traffic because it gave me time to think rather than drive.  I was excited about the piece but also excited about what I'm currently writing and excited to be even a very small part of the process of developing a new piece.  How I miss giving feedback on plays!  How I have missed the collaborative environment of the theater!

The piece was a new musical by Jamie Erekson called Paint My Eyes.  By the time you read this it will have closed but hopefully you will get to see the next incarnation.  One thing I loved about this piece was that it fit into an aesthetic that I try to cultivate in my own work.  It came from a distinctly faithful viewpoint and could be considered faith promoting but it also comes from a place of complexity and depth.  The feel-good moments are hard won and do not diminish the harsh realities.  The beautiful moments were earned by both the characters and the audience and so they were more dear.  This was brought home forcefully by the highly emotional response of one audience member during the talkback session afterwards.  We had trusted the playwright/composer to take us on a journey and, though the journey was difficult, our trust was not misplaced.

The piece explores the experiences of two missionaries against a backdrop of dreams (especially Lehi's dream) and memories.  As we put together the puzzle pieces of Elder Garn's last few months in the mission field our eyes are opened to his struggles and the struggles of those around him.  The deep wounds of the German people are sympathetically wrought and contrasted to the deep wounds in the central storyline.  A depth of emotion is established so that when the revelation of the central wound is finally realized, our hearts are ready.  We see it in context and it lands. Hard.

The humor in the story also serves to further this goal.  Elder Garn's companion is a comic foil for much of the story, constantly calling himself out for his faults (such as perpetual lying) and spectacularly ruining missionary opportunities with hilarious missteps.  This makes the audience listen all the more when he steps into the role of truth teller and facilitates the feeling of redemption at the end of the piece.

The music, too, brought home the themes of the piece.  Difficult and haunting, the music embodied the emotional undercurrent of the play.  My memory of the music is not of specific tunes but of how it seized my heart.  In fact, the music was so fused to the scene that the two can't be separated in my head, which is where the piece will be for a long while--swirling around my brain, making me smile, because being in a theater and wearing the hat of "collaborator" feeds my start and makes my heart happy.