Something strange happened during the show tonight. Already, it was one of those nights where I wasn't all that into it (I know, I know) and the show was basically performed by rote. But then, during the scene known as "San Marino", I was so completely thrown off that I froze on stage for several seconds.
There was a scarf on stage.
And when I say scarf, I mean someone's every day, real life, going-out-to-buy-some-groceries-on a-blustery-winter's-day, scarf.
Just hanging out.
Right there in the middle of the stage.
To say it stuck out like a sore thumb would be an understatement. To say it had no place on stage would also be an understatement. The only way I can think to describe the moment is like if everything in the world was grey scale and then suddenly a rainbow appeared. It had no place in the Universe that is our show. I know that may seem melodramatic, but the whole point of a stage show is to create an entire Universe in all its colours and textures and to really believe and inhabit it, if only for a couple of hours. Can you imagine seeing a Cirque du Soleil show filled with strange and marvelous creatures in an exotic dream scape and then suddenly seeing empty water bottle roll out from behind god knows where? Of course not. Because it is careless, unprofessional and simply something that should never happen in high level artistic stage show.
I don't know if I can properly convey how inexcusable that kind of thing is. To me, anyway. You see, the person responsible happens to be one of the founding members of the troupe, so no one will say anything. Moreover, those who have been a part of the company since the beginning often succumb to a 'resting on their laurels' kind of attitude and would likely just shrug such a thing off. Had the director been present, I could see him being far more upset over the drawing of the branch not looking Japanese enough than the fact that a brown and orange wooly scarf was left on stage.
Perhaps you feel I'm overreacting. After all, it was just a scarf left on a piece of decor during rehearsal that later fell and remained on stage.
Well, what if I told you the same person responsible for forgetting their scarf has also forgotten to turn off their cell phone and then left it in their trunk back stage rather than leaving it in their dressing room? And that that same phone started ringing during the show? During a silent moment? While it's owner was onstage and therefore could not turn it off? And that that happened two shows ago?
Shit like that is frustrating. Shit like that being met with a shrug of the shoulders and a "That's so-and-so!" is frustrating. And a lot of the shrugging of the shoulders stems from the fact that you simply cannot criticize this person and nothing is ever their fault.
There's an expression in French that says there's never two without three. I wonder what the third on-stage surprise will be?
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