I’m really bad at grasping the abstract.
Often times I find myself watching a film or a play and I come out of the theatre not understanding a single thing I had seen.
Sometimes it seems the only kind of things I can grasp are the naturalistic shows.
But what I know is that I go to watch plays and films looking for one thing and one thing only – “moments”.
Everyone watches plays and films for different reasons.
I go for the moments.
If you’re lucky, at every play or film you’d get that one moment that just tugs at your heartstrings like nothing else can.
If you’re very lucky, you might get two…but most of the time I’m thankful if I can just get one.
Most of the time you get none, but that makes the moments all the more special when they do come.
What exactly do I mean by a “moment”?
Well, it’s hard to put a finger on it really.
The “moment” represents the absolute crystallisation of emotions which the entire show has up to that point been meticulously crafted to create.
It is usually the emotional high point of the show, but not necessarily always so.
It is that point in the show when you feel the tears just inexplicably well up, or when someone says or does something that hits you right at your very core like a sledgehammer and makes you go “Awww man!!”
Stuff like that.
Like in “The Sound of Music” when Captain Von Trapp sings for the first time. (Gets me every time.)
Or when Meg Ryan finally meets Tom Hanks in the final scene in “You’ve Got Mail” and says “I wanted it to be you.”
Or when Julia Roberts and Dermot Mulroney both say “the moment passes you by” and the boat they’re on immediately goes under the bridge and then reappears out into the sunlight shortly after.
Or that moment in “Wicked” when Elphaba sings the song “I’m Not That Girl” and you see Glinda and Fiyero together on the bridge up above.
Or that scene in “Serendipity” when Jeremy Piven tries his best to prevent buddy John Cusack from peeking into the house, but he sees it anyway, and is totally crestfallen at what he sees in the house.
For me the moment in the film “Jerry Maguire” (one of my all time favourites) was not when he finally said “you complete me” to Dorothy.
It was just a bit before that, after Rod Tidwell’s triumphant game against the Cowboys, and Rod comes out to hug Jerry in front of all the cameras, and Rod’s wife Marcee calls up on Jerry’s cellphone, and Jerry passes the phone to Rod, and Rod cries uncontrollably as he tells his wife he loves her so very much, and Jerry just stands there and watches.
And it was there and then that Jerry finally understood the one thing that mattered most in life – family.
Not money, not popularity, not business success, not signing star athletes, but family.
That, to me, was the “moment” in Jerry Maguire.
True moments are extremely hard to create, in my opinion.
But when it’s done right…then wow, that to me is the whole point of going into the theatre.
Of course, as I said earlier, everyone goes to shows looking for different things.
I go for the moments.
Event: “Trainstopping – The Year in Revue 2011″ by Sight Lines Productions
