‘We float – we’re not based in one place – we’re floating Islanders. I always come back to theatre, theatre is my first home.’
– Makerita Urale
A large part of acting is just pretending. You get to work with these other great make-believers, all making believe as hard as they can.
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First there is this from Emily Dickinson:There is no Frigate like a Book
To take us Lands away
Nor any Coursers like a Page
Of prancing Poetry --
This Traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of Toll --
How frugal is the Chariot
That bears the Human soul.
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Winter Is Coming (1828)
Wildly the autumn-blast howls round the mountain,
Dark clouds are gathering o'er forest and field,
Chill grow the waters of river and fountain,
The frost-god is shrieking, "Yield, Summer, yield!"
The strong winds of heaven the red rose have shatter'd,
Gone are the glories of woodland and dell,
And the leaves of the forest by myriads are scatter'd;
WINTER IS COMING — bright Summer, farewell!
So pass we — and down, on our bright hopes of morrow,
Comes rushing and reckless a dark shade of gloom,
It tells of disaster, declension and sorrow,
Of a doom that awaits us — it speaks of the tomb.
Wildly the autumn-blast howls round the mountain,
Dark clouds are gathering o'er forest and field,
Chill grow the waters of river and fountain,
The frost-god is shrieking, "Yield, Summer, yield!"
The strong winds of heaven the red rose have shatter'd,
Gone are the glories of woodland and dell,
And the leaves of the forest by myriads are scatter'd;
WINTER IS COMING — bright Summer, farewell!
So pass we — and down, on our bright hopes of morrow,
Comes rushing and reckless a dark shade of gloom,
It tells of disaster, declension and sorrow,
Of a doom that awaits us — it speaks of the tomb.
(My italics.) The Italians was published in 1964; the edition I have was printed in 1996.Very few then are the rules which can help an Italian plot his course and steer a safe line in a country which has never really accepted the moral teaching of feudalism, and in which society, the law and State have feeble powers. He must defend himself. He begins early by being his own school-teacher (most schools are inadequate) and professor (universities are poor, backward, and badly run). Later he must be his own journalist (published new of internal affairs can be so biased that to rely on them is to court disaster), his own literary, film, art, and drama critic (reviews rarely reflect the worth of the film, book, or drama, but a number of factors, the personal relation between author and critic, their respective political parties, relative ages, philosophical bias, and so forth), his own strategic expert in times of war (nobody will tell him who is winning and when to run until too late), and his own fiscal expert (to distinguish which are the taxes to be paid fully, which only in part, and which to be ignored altogether). He must at times be his own lawyer, policeman, and judge. In short, his security depends not on the combined exertions of his countrymen to which he should add his own but mostly on his individual capacities and native shrewdness.
