Food for Thought

As it happened, there was a bit of a theme running through the three shows and the talk that we were booked in to.

I last saw the powerful rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar in about 1972 and was glad that it still retained its hippy tinge. In the interval I found myself trying to give Beth, who is half Jewish, a brief synopsis of the life, times and work of JC.

The following day we listened to Ghandi Peace Prize winner Dr Izzeldin Abuelaish talking about his campaign for an end to hate, for the education of women and for the world to understand the terrible plight of the Palistinian refugees who are virtually imprisoned in the Gaza strip. I felt I was hearing the same message as from the day before and with it a challenge to stand up and be counted. If you don't know what to believe, go and see for yourself, he said. And then tell the world.

John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, masterfully adapted by Frank Galati, follows the Joad family, turned off their Oklahoma land, heading west to the the land of plenty. Their story of idealism, disappointment, hardship and desperation is tragic. Referred to by others as "Okies" they are dismissed as dirty, lazy and ignorant. I could not help but think of the many asylum seekers risking all for safety to be so shamefully treated in my own country.

So what I wondered, would Titus Andronicus add to this maelstrom of emotions? One of Shakespeare's earliest plays, some say his worst, some say not his at all, it is a tale of relentless revenge, each atrocity building on the last until it is impossible to see any reason in the dying. Despite the many mutilations and murders, all the gore was saved for poor Lavinia, raped, her hands cut off and tongue ripped out. But still she named her violators and they were brought down, served up as a dainty dish for their mother. And for why? Because the same foreign mother's son had been sacrificed and she wrought a terrible revenge.

A familiar story.