The Habit of Art

(The National Theatre, 14 May 2010)

The tragedy of being able to speak, having nothing to say, and yet being listened to---it afflicts the play's characters and implicates its playwright. Death, the protagonist, is gradual; it bares life, but does not corrupt it---for the lives of the dying have long been appropriated by the living. Even if others---living or dead---are not what one wishes they were, they deserve credit for being what makes one wish they were what they are not.