Can beauty have better commerce than with honesty?

This post is slightly different from the others and links in with the publication of Fiona Robyn's book 'The Most Beautiful Thing.'   http://www.writingourwayhome.com/2012/04/my-most-beautiful-thing-blogsplash.html.  this is what it is about - Today I'm taking part in the My Most Beautiful Thing Blogsplash to celebrate beautiful things - inspired by Fiona Robyn's new novel, The Most Beautiful Thing. Bloggers from all over the world are taking part and writing or posting pictures of their most beautiful things today. Find out more here and see everyone else's blog posts here.


Now you may think it strange, but it does connect with Melting Pot's production of Hamlet.  There is that moment when, waiting in the dark at the side of the stage, heart beating, head going over and over the first line (once that line comes the rest flows like a river), mouth dry, costume hot and uncomfortable, then..you hear your cue, look up and see the actor next to you move to take their place on the stage.  You move together, almost one creature, both lost in the dynamics and rhythmics of the play.  There is that moment when you are on stage, lines are coming fluently, you suddenly realise where you are, how much you rely on the actor opposite coming in at just the right time, moving to just the right spot and your brain is working on at least five levels -1. what's my next word 2. where's the prop I need in 2 pages time 3. I wonder if the bar will stay open after. 4. how are we going to pick up the daffodils Ophelia just threw all over the stage. 5.  I wonder if I put enough change in the parking machine- all the while the action continues.  This is what it is to be most thoroughly alive.  This is what it is to feel completely in the present.  You fluffed your last line?  forget it.  The audience has, and if you let it worry you, you'll spoil your lines now.  You are someone else and you are yourself.  You have licence to act completely differently to normal, if only for 2 and a half hours.  


Think back two months...all there was, was a rehearsal schedule, a cast, a script and an illimitless well of faith...setback after setback, cast members dropping out, venues not available, no budget, no energy, family and work intruding and yet we kept on...even at the end things went awry but we overcame and, even more than that, turned setbacks into triumphs.  And now the play is in our bones, each one of us.  I hear the words in ordinary everyday speech and cannot forbear to quote, and I know the rest of the cast feels the same.  And this is beautiful.