Looking Into the Future

We live in some really weird times.  The other day, my coworker was talking about some movie from the 70s or 80s that took place in the 20-10s, and there were flying cars.  In many ways, we are living in the “future”.  The thing we have to remember, though, is that there’s still future from here.  Walden was a reminder of that…it was a play that really showed what the future from here could look like.  And it was both captivating and terrifying.  Because the future means so many different things.  Walden played on how a future from now could look, and it was stunning.

First of all, we don’t really know how far into the future Walden was supposed to take place.  What we do know is the type of world these people are living in.  There are all sorts of climate issues.  Within the first couple of minutes, we hear a news report about a tsunami that hit the east coast and there are a million people missing or presumed dead.  The other, extremely major thing, is that there is space.  There are people living on the moon.  There are people heading to Mars.  It’s a major fact about this show.  You’re going to hear a lot about space.

Of course, by the looks of the set, you wouldn’t think that would be setting the tone for the show.  It’s a really nice looking little house with a cute porch, fire pit, and other basic outdoors things.  But they did a good job of introducing the fact that we’re in different times with Walden.  A woman watches the news on a device that looks like a piece of glass.  You hear about the above tsunami that is devastating America.  It was a beautiful introduction to what turns into a science fiction play.  The tiniest thing is a big beacon for things to come.

I don’t want to harp on all that, though.  Because the most important thing about Walden is the cast of characters.  First we meet Stella and Bryan, the young couple who live in this little house.  We learn that they’ll be getting a visit from Stella’s sister Cassie.  And that’s when things end up getting a bit crazy.  Cassie has been on the moon for the past year, and there’s obviously a divide between the sisters.  Bryan seems to know half the story, but not all of it.  And the three of them make an extremely interesting group.  Watching them was breathtaking, the way they interacted.  They made this crazy sci fi story so real.

Bryan is the type of character who is clearly a nurturer.  This is clear in how he acts towards Stella and Cassie.  It’s clear in how he shares his beliefs, and how firmly rooted he is in them.  Stella and Cassie struggle with each other, but it’s clear they love each other very much, as well as having some shared trauma.  Their relationship with each other very much goes back to their relationship with their father, how they were raised, and the turns their lives took.  And the three of them worked together so seamlessly.

But there was just so much going on.  These people live in a very complex world, but in some ways, it’s so simple.  This is the future, possibly our future, but you can still relate to the people we’re watching in Walden.  And not just the people, but their relationships.  Their fears, their beliefs.  And that was something I really took away from this show.  Because even if this is our future, people are still people.  We will always have things that we want, things that we strive for, beliefs that are important to us.  Walden showed us this world, but that wasn’t all it showed us.

I think it’s something the entire audience felt.  I’ve been to a lot of shows in my time, and I can definitely say that most of the time, the audience is pretty quiet during a play.  Maybe that’s theatre etiquette, or maybe it’s something else.  But with Walden, there was audible reaction from the audience.  On more than one occasion, there were gasps, or sounds of unrest.  Even I made them.  It’s so interesting to me that this is something they brought out in us, and I think it really says a lot about the play.  It was both beautiful, and so very ugly.

InterAct has always wowed me with the plays they produce.  They do the things that nobody else will do, and Walden was no different in that respect.  It made me uncomfortable, it made me sad, it made me scared…but it also gave me hope.  The message of this play is so very clear.  Throughout time, with things that we can’t even fully wrap our mind around, there is a future.  We might never have flying cars.  Maybe space is the answer for continuing the human race.  There’s so much we’ll just never know until we’re there.  Walden asked a lot of questions, but it answered a lot as well.  And that was the true essence of the show.

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