Holy crap you guys it is May. I’ve been focusing most of my bloggy energy (such as it is) over at Sideshow’s Blerg, in order to get the word out about our current production of Jason Grote’s Maria/Stuart. Today’s post turned into something of a muse-fest, though, and so I thought I’d link over and let it serve double-duty. Long story short: the production is amazing, and the evening I saw it featured a very rare moment of complete theatrical destruction. It was beautiful, and I liked it. To whit:

And that’s what theatre itself should be, and is, in its best moments: a simultaneous act of creation and destruction. The engineering of moments that, even if they don’t involve flying mashed potatoes, are being whirled into meaningful existence just long enough to make an impact, and then vanishing entirely into memory. We shouldn’t be afraid to break things, because the moments that we’re making can’t get used again. They can be talked about, and reminisced over, and remembered, but not experienced. Their messages have self-destructed, but with any luck they have sent us off on our own impossible missions before doing so.

If you’re in Chicago, you need to see this show. Only four performances left, though, so get a move on. You’ll be happy that you did.