dailyeatings

It isn’t particularly difficult to find individual reasons why The Sparrow was such a fantastic experience. The play draws liberally from many points of (popular) cultural interest from my childhood and beyond which continue to resonate with me to this day. It is, however, very difficult to articulate why this particularly combination worked. The play wears its heritage on sleeve: it is, simply put, Wicked + Heroes + Smallville + a little bit of Ray Bradbury + Sufjan Stevens’ Illinoise! album + a splash of Andrew Wyeth’s paintings. But that the combination of these elements would somehow not only pay respect to the original works while at the same time combine into something beyond their simple sum was wholly unexpected. It was a bit like finding that random ingredients from my favorite foods, orange juice and mushrooms and pesto and bamboo shoots, mixed together and baked, actually tastes awesome.

Simply put, I loved it. It fit perfectly in the mold of revisionist, humanist takes on pulp/sci-fi/superhero themes set by The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, one of my favorite books ever. It reaffirmed the need for me to reduce the amount of smirking irony in my artistic intake. And it, for two hours at least, made me feel something. Which is more than what I normally ask for in my reading or watching.