Top Hat

(Aldwych Theatre, 2 April 2013)

A live performance assures that the memories evoked by music are real. This reality is shared, at least by few, in whom one sees those who one aspires to be or may become, or was or could have been. A live performance assures that also music is real, ready to reveal the humanity that transcends individuals once a critical mass of them assemble, on or off stage.

In an act of the division of emotional labour, the audience empathise with characters, thus inhabiting multiple lives at once. This practice is no escapism. Escapism denies one's condition. Empathy enriches one's condition.