Going down to the Shakespeare festival in Cedar City this weekend to see "A Winter's Tale" was a rather interesting experience. I'm used to the theater, so that wasn't anything new, and this wasn't my first Shakespeare play. I thought the casting was great (except for Florizel who I thought was an idiot pretty boy and I imagined Paulina to be a bit more spicy than she was portrayed). But the thing that interested me most about the whole experience was how the play changed the conversation on the drive back home.
I was wary driving four strangers around all day, especially because I'm fairly shy. The drive down had a hint of awkward as we tried to get to know each other with the basic name-major-home town questions and I feared we had run out of things to say to each other the first two hours of the drive. However as soon as the play was over and we piled back into my car something amazing happened. While discussing the play we stopped trying not to step on each other's toes and actually disagreed with each other about what we liked and what we thought could have been better, not only about the play we had just seen, but about other plays and other aspects of life in general. It was fantastic. Maybe it's just the observer in me, but I found it very interesting that before we had seen the play we were cautious about what we said to each other and how we said it. Once we knew we had some small sliver of something in common (seeing the same play together) we were able to brake down a lot of awkward social niceties that had made us so uncomfortable the first part of the day.
Anthropologically thinking, I wonder why it was easier for us to open up more to each other afterwards than before. Not much, if anything, had changed about us personally from the three hours in the theater, so what happened? What is it about a mildly heated discussion about Shakespeare that causes people to connect?
Huh. That is a fascinating question. I wish I were an anthropologist so I could venture a response to your question. I would think that you are right about having now shared something that gives the individual a foundation on which to build conversation. It's like playing dodge-ball. If you know the person you're about to huck a heavy round object at, you do it with much... less reservation.
ReplyDeleteWell I'm glad to hear the awkwardness in other cars got better afterwards:) It's weird, because my car wasn't awkward at all. And usually I'm one of the ones sitting with my knees scrunched up trying not to touch the stranger next to me. It's funny how different combinations of personalities, or even just one person not afraid to break down the walls, can change a whole situation. It doesn't take much to bring people together. We want to be brought together, we just don't know how to go about it. Shakespeare did.
ReplyDeletei love it. Totally relate to the formality of a car ride with strangers. There's always that slow easing where we realize that we can be our dorky selves, and that other people are slightly dorky too. No matter how many new situations, we always start at the stiff, cordial beginning. But with a little time, and a little WIlliam, breakthroughs! Love this insight.
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