Today, I went to Philadelphia with my dad to see the play Miss Saigon at the Walnut St. Theatre. The weather was cloudy on the whole, and cool as early spring, which made for a nice run later in the evening. Arriving 45 minutes early, as is my dad's usual custom, we explored the theatre a little before taking our seats. And so began the show.
If you've never seen Miss Saigon, I would recommend you do so if given the chance. The tale is a beautiful if sad story of sudden love creating a lasting impression upon two people who suffer from the tragedy of a long-distance relationship that goes poorly. A marine named Chris is in Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam in 1975, just before the end of the war. His buddy John hooks him up with a new prostitute at the "boom-boom" house at which they're drinking. Yet almost immediately both Chris and the prostitute, named Kim, develop a deeper understanding of one another than is common under such circumstances, and soon fall in love in a beautiful way. Chris decides to attempt to get Kim out of the country. The first tragedy ensues when Saigon is falling, and Chris is literally forced to leave Saigon without Kim, a tale that is told during the second act as a flash-back which strikes the audience as both moving and intense.
As it turns out, Kim leaves Saigon (now known as Ho-Chi-Mihn City) for Bangkok, and Chris returns to the United States, where after a year of desperate searching for Kim, he settles down and marries a woman named Ellen. He is plagued by nightmares, however, and his wife Ellen struggles to understand what troubles him. As for Kim, she has given birth to a child named Tam, Chris' child, and she and the child live together in Bangkok. Through the intermediary of a self-interested friend of Kim's, Chris learns of her child and her present plight. He informs Helen of the child, who is clearly flabbergasted and confused. Nevertheless, both he and Ellen, along with Chris' friend John, head for Bangkok to seek out Kim and her child.
On hearing that Chis is in the city, Kim rushes to his hotel room, the excitement and naked joy written clear upon her countanence, an innocent, urgent, and unabashed love that is so rich with feeling and passion. Kim finds Chris' hotel room, only to find Ellen, Chris' wife, and no Chris, who was just then out searching for Kim. It is then that Ellen informs Kim that she is Chris' wife. Kim's reaction is riveting, a break-down at once both sudden and completely heart-wrenching. Kim is distraught, and leaves in a rush. Ellen then puzzles over the difficulty of her own situation, as she recognizes the love the Kim feels for her husband. The dilemma is palpable, and one cannot help but feel for Ellen's plight.
Ultimately, Kim gives her son up to Chris and Ellen's protection. Kim then retreats into her bed area, where she pulls from a box the pistol that John had given her three years before in Saigon so that she might protect herself, and proceeds to kill herself. She dies in Chris' arms, a moment of incredible pathos and sadness that is hard to describe with words.
The story spoke to me on a number of levels, not the least of which on those themes that have been a part of my own experience. Sudden love across wide distances is a remarkable thing, yet carries with it the enormous potential for tragedy. You will know what I mean if you have ever been blessed and cursed with this happy and difficult circumstance. I have now seen a play which speaks to this collection of experiences in a true and unique way. It very accurately highlights the manner in which something so beautiful can go so wrong.
Yet it needn't be. A tragedy, like a triumph, is a mirror in which we might observe the emtional trajectory of good-meaning people under quite unfavorable circumstances. In their thoughts and actions, we might observe elements of ourselves; those feelings and tendencies which may have a more or less universal quality to them. By these stories, we are meant to feel the very real pain that poor choices and poor circumstances may wreak upon poor humankind. And so we feel. Yet perhaps we might learn, giving ourselves over to reflection and self-examination. The tragedies of the heart, such as highlighted in the play, may seem intractable, and perhaps they are, yet it would seem foolish to absorb the story without a thoughtful consideration of it's emotional dimension. I urge you to feel the tragedy that is Kim's, Chris', and Ellen's, yet I urge you not to cease there, but to continue in one's exploration of those deep feelings of which the play highlights.
Much luck to you in this. And who knows; perhaps you will learn something of yourself in all this. Happy Sunday, kind readers :).
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