2024.09.18
The story is of Daniel, his relationship with King Nebuchadnezzar, his buddies (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego) the buddies' time in the furnace, and his time in the lion's den. (It plays a little loose and throws in some of the other prophets as well, but it all kind of works.)
But mostly it's difficult to express the epic scale of this production. "Sight + Sound" is a custom theater in Lancaster PA (they have a sister setup in Branson MO) and they take FULL advantage of the space - it starts with a huge extra wide stage- and then not too far into the show the side curtains drop and you see there's set on all 3 sides. They make tremendous use of video projection screens with clever interplay with huge pieces of mobile scenery... The opening scene is Nebuchadnezzar on his majestic royal bed while have a nightmare, the bed flying over a beautifully rendered scene of the city of Babylon - and the way they roll the physical bed structure in careful sync with the video - like what you thought was part of a physical set turns out to be part of the projection - while at the same time flying in a large on-brand Babylonian statue from the ceiling - it's jaw dropping.
Like I said, the scale of it - like BIG Broadway meets Vegas, almost more opera than musical - giant orchestra soundtrack played loud, a few live animals here and there - it made me think of the effect cathedrals, stained glass, and church services full of incense and mystery were said to have on worshippers, just working to instill a sense of awe.
The performances were great as well. I'm not much of a theater critic, but was impressed with the way they set the physically unimposing Daniel vs the truly burly Nebuchadnezzar and the prophets all with these majestic booming voices. (Though I did think it's odd there's no cast list in the program like most similar productions might have?)
Babylon was such a fortuitous setting for this treatment there's this brilliant "taking a boat through the Hanging Gardens waterways" that really leaves an impression. They made heavy use of the place's iconography, bearded kingly lion men statues and the like. Heck their song Babylon Creation (with its haunting, gravitas-laden refrain "There Is None Like Babylon / We Are One") tells that creation myth, the Dragon Tiamat vs Marduk - and kinda makes it look sorta cool?
I mean it's also a tool for getting a Christian message out, but they don't really beat you over the head with it - and it's not always easy to get a New Testament message out of an Old Testament story but they get there.
Here's a behind-the-scenes video they made about Creating Babylon.
Anyway, thanks to my folks for taking me! (We went via via a daytrip bus package with lunch at the Shady Maple Smorgasborg: "Experience the excitement of dining at the United States' largest smorgasbord, featuring 200 feet of deliciously authentic Pennsylvania Dutch cooking." (and a gift shop similarly scaled))
this tale of science made me laugh
I am glad this project [of digitizing my father's writing] is over, but I ended up welcoming the work, guiding these last phases of compression. My father needed a great deal of space, but now he takes up almost none. Almost. Death is a lossy process, but something always remains.
This game has cost me a couple of relationships. My girlfriend said, "It's either me or the chess pieces, Marcel." So I looked at her, I looked at my chess pieces, I looked at her again. And the more I looked at her, the more I could see how toxic she was. The more I looked at my chess pieces, I could see lots of solitude. I said, "You know what? I'll talk to you later." I picked up my pieces, I left. I let a lot of frustration out on the chessboard. Because it's like life. It's got three parts. The opening, the middle, and the end. The opening part of your life goes from the time you were born until you're twenty-six. In the opening part, you want to develop as much as possible.
You want to go to school, start a career. Then you go from the opening to the middle. You want to work in your career maybe thirty years, get married, have kids. And then the end game is from age fifty on down. You say, "I'm not worried about nothing now. I'm coming to the park to play chess, drink some brandy, I'm going to talk to Raul or to Pedro." That's how chess is. That's how life is. And let me tell you something: people make mistakes early in their life. But that doesn't mean the game is over.