Comedy and Tragedy

Image: Origin Unknown

Prologue

“Comedy aims at representing

men as worse, Tragedy as better

than in actual life.”

~ Aristole, The Poetics

Act 1: Comedy

To be the common man is the art,

ordinary and prevailing, overcoming of

hard-dealt circumstance,

believable, as is our belief in our

smallness, that only some are gifted

divine madness,

chosen to be the sacred fool.

What you are viewing is a place

that we have all come to together;

this scene. Watch it unfold, carefully.

This is what the masterful actor longs for you

to read

between the lines:

It’s a sad plot that we are laughing our

way through because we don’t want

to know that bad things are happening to good

people,

like us.

“Good morning!”

in context of mass causalities.

Where should we shine the light?

Act 2: Tragedy

A god will fall through

fatal error or misjudgment

and find suffering in humility.

Ah, but let time pass this way and he will understand,

And, oh my,

the audience will fear his revelation,

how they want it for themselves but not at

such a terrible cost; the ticket for this show should come cheap.

He never got to play this role.

How should we cast the darkness?

The Finale

When the curtain closes, the

hero always rises.

But which mask was he wearing?

© 2014/Jamie K. Reaser

From "Portraits" (a work in progress)

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