VAMPIRE ROMEO

This evening after dinner the girls entertained us with a presentation of "Vampire Romeo and Juliet." Shakespeare's poetic masterpiece has been said to require a number of actors even in a derivative form, but this served as no impediment to Kasmira (age 9), Alexandra (4), and Amelia (2).

The free form drama was characterized by face painting, and an unscripted performance so loose as to preclude being able to ascertain which performer was Romeo (or Juliet) until the very conclusion!

In modern theatre the lines between individual representations of humanity and the collective unconscious are so often blurred, and we were quite impressed with our daughters for grasping this so intuitively.

In fact Amelia, who was to play "the one we bite," spent the entire performance painting herself in plain view in her "dressing room," beside the kitchen sink.

When properly thought on, is that not truly the role of a biting victim? Preparation for the fate that awaits so surely; no collectivist emancipation is found on the path of the vampire's prey, only individual suffering and anticipation of the terrible moment that brings the attention of the crowd.

Further highlights included Kasmira (who later turned out to be Romeo) decapitating herself with her sword (or was it really, as it appeared, a ruler?), and Alexandra becoming unable to extricate herself from a tunnel comprised of a small plastic slide and a sleeping bag. She had initially laid down on the sleeping bag, on a beanbag chair and in an effort to "disappear" then allowed herself to become wedged in the tunnel!

Oh how her cries emanated from that cylindrical representation of the darkness of the eons separating us from home! How plaintive her representation of "the thrownness," and of the being stuck.

The dynamics of the situation did not allow for immediate psychological digestion of its implications-this nugget of cosmological contemplation instead promises to be pondered, and treasured, throughout the very ages it represents.

During a lull in the otherwise rapidly paced action, Kasmira brandished her sword and accosted an imaginary figure of uncertain identity, threatening "Back! Back! You'll never win, whoever you are!"

But her interpretation left room to wonder-"Who won't ever win?", and "But haven't they already?" To say nothing of, "And don't we all suddenly decide to decapitate ourselves when things get slow?"

For reasons not immediately accessible to even the most seasoned critic the entire affair ended, quite abruptly, with "So Long, Farewell" from "The Sound of Music."

The finale was met with wild applause from the partisan crowd of two at which moment Amelia stormed into the room declaring herself ready.

What? No victim? All of that preparation for a single moment that never comes? Can there truly be denial of a promised satisfaction?-all made up and no one to bite you. And if there is isn't it, beyond even our ability to comprehend it so, all for the best?

Heady stuff really, and perfectly matched with the philosophical audience.

vampires are scary, I want to go home