An #Epic Scene from @LyricTheatre's #AChristmasCarol (2019) that Stuck with Me (#SPOILERALERT, if you don't know the story by now)


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I don't know if I can find video of that exact scene–which would probably be a pale shadow of the live-action experience–so I'll describe it (vaguely) here. Lyric Theatre makes use of a turntable embedded in their Plaza-stage. Ebenezer Scrooge's bed–with full bedcurtains–is in a corner of the stage (not on the turntable).

He hears a murmur, and gets up to go to the center of the room. As the ghost moans louder-&-louder, the thunder & lightning come up & the room starts to spin. Lights flash, the room keeps spinning, tall windows-etc. briefly hiding the door opening on the back of the stage where Marley's Ghost comes charging into Scrooge's bedroom.

I'd call it 'nightmare fuel' if it were not clearly connected to "the ghost's purpose in the story" (to give Scrooge a reason to heed the oncoming Spirits).

I try to think of an adjective for the scene, and the one that comes to mind is "Epic" (like The Highlander or other heroes with the wind blowing their robes or hair streaming in their wake).

Why do I think of that word? 'That word' (below-hyperlinked to Etymonline's entry for "Epic") is built on an even-deeper source ... something crucial that firms the foundation upon which our lexicon stands ...

The word “Epic” is built on words that mean “to Speak” (Grand, Heroic—meaning extended from the Greek for "Story, Prophecy, Proverb, Poetry in Heroic Verse, a Long Narrative told on a Grand Scale of Time & Place with a Larger-than-Life Protagonist").

So you can see how sometimes 'epic' is used not-so-much to describe "long-long-looooooooooooong poems" as to describe 'events (or presences or performances or styles etc.) that look like they have lots-&-lots-&-lots of history behind them ... that are very crucial to the present moment (like they're "standing on a mountain-peak presenting their future king to the Pride-Lands").'

Or am I looking at that wrong (or 'wrongly' 🤓)? Tell
 me how-wrong/right I am in the comments below 😁

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