Chapter 3
Alexander and Ella Met Michael
We often walked in the rain and we could not see anything else but umbrellas and hurried steps. ''It is a town with rushing people, '' you said.
''You cannot ever see anything on their face. Their eyes are always very rigid and they have tired lips. When they walk on the streets they look like doll-puppets straight out of shop windows. Sometimes they seem to be wax statues. ''
''Yet, it is a place where nothing ever happens; nothing happens by pure chance either,'' I told him smiling. ''Sometimes I ask myself how it might be to meet you on the street by chance, ''you told me once."
''How would you have reacted?'' you asked me.
''I don't know,'' I replied.
'I would have invited you for a coffee,'' you said.
''To talk about what?'' I asked you smiling again. ''About the stars!'' you said. ''Interesting!'' I said looking right into your eyes. ''Maybe it would have depended on the star I had chosen, ''you said and caressed my hair." No, it depended on what you could have told me." I said.
''Everything and nothing at the same time!''You replied. I had already gazed at you when you tried to tell me everything, but you abstained from speaking. I felt that everything depended on my words. You kissed me. It was like the first time, a sweet kiss. I felt a thrill. ''I felt a thrill,'' you told me. ''It's coming from our star,'' I replied. It was an escape from reality surrounding us and we slipped into the reality of living self. Suddenly, we became fugitives. We walked quietly on the street holding our hands.
Suddenly, we stopped and we turned around to look at the theater. With screen venues in the surrounding area, the theater became an enormous building housing many professional offices. Even if it had a modern extension, the building was a listed historic monument and the original building facade, the entry foyer and the saloon on the first floor had to be preserved. There were some announcements informing the people that the theater operates on Friday and Saturday nights only with two showings plus a Sunday afternoon matinee.
The auditorium had a capacity of five hundred seats and an indirect lighting for the foyer and the lobby. The flooring in the lobby was a terrazzo composition and the seats were made of green plush upholstery. The drapes around the proscenium of the stage were made of green velvet. ''You work in a wonderful place. Someday you will be a great actor, Alexander!'' I told him.
Suddenly, we heard a voice behind us. It was Michael, our friend. ''Hello, how are you?" Alexander asked him. They shook hands. Michael was an actor just like Alexander. ''Let's drink some coffee somewhere,'' Michael said. We entered the cafe, and we sat on the corner near the window. The bartender brought us the coffee.
She was wearing a short black skirt and a low-cut white blouse. Michael and Alexander started a conversation.'' The theater has always been created for a sacred purpose, usually for a myth or a sacred story,'' Michael said. ''Yes!'' Alexander said. ''The theater has always been created for a ritual; it had to incorporate elements of invocation and purification or it could mean nothing.''
''I agree with you about the myth,'' Michael said. ''By the way, try to think of the myth of Sisyphus where the human condition is basically meaningless. We are human beings with meaningless lives trying to understand the universe. But the explanation of the universe is beyond its reach and this is the reason for seeing this world so absurd, because people think that they know the universe'' Alexander tried to explain.
''Try to understand why the sense of the bewilderment and the anxiety is conveyed in an inexplicable universe sometimes,'' Michael continued. ''We don't have a suitable acting elemental play yet. When I see one, I will begin to think of the absurd theater.''
''Most of the plays in which our actors play need motivated characters.'' Michael seemed to be very thoughtful. ''What can you say about the play when the dialogue degenerates into a meaningless babble?'' I said smiling. Michael laughed.
''They start the dialogue at an arbitrary point and seem to end it in the same arbitrary way. The play turns into a scandal.''
''The play must be understood and played with the performing actors but, because we don't have good actors, it becomes much more a buffoonery than a real play,'' I said. ''An anti-theater!'' Alexander said, smiling. ''Ha, ha,'' Michael laughed again. Michael left them wanting to return home.