Nothing Would Stop Them Doing So

Nothing Would Stop Them Doing So
(a villanelle)

In his 1968 book, The Empty Space the theatre director, Peter Brook talks about a visit he made, in 1946, to the bombed-out city of Hamburg.
This is what he wrote:

“In the burnt-out shell of the Hamburg Opera only the stage itself remained – but an audience assembled on it whilst against the back wall on a wafer-thin set singers clambered up and down to perform The Barber of Seville, because nothing would stop them doing so.” (Ch2, The Holy Theatre, p49)

And here’s the poem:

 

Even in a theatre of rubble and dust
Nothing would stop them doing so
They shared their art like they knew they must

Creating a performance as holy as lust
That cannot be beaten down by a ‘no’
Even in a theatre of rubble and dust

Building a city of rotted timber and rust
A Seville only the audience could know
When they shared their art like they knew they must

Then you say you can’t draw, can’t write, can’t be fussed
And I want to slap whoever convinced you so
There’s room to grow in the rubble and dust

Now we can learn, in ourselves, to trust
To open that raging internal glow
And share our art like we know we must

Strangle that inner critic to death, and bust
From the prison that stops you doing so
We’ll share our art like we know we must
Even in a theatre of rubble and dust.

 

February 2024

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