Astute readers of this blog (those who are left) have noticed a long hiatus in posts. This has been due to medical reasons, and also because of these, most future posts for awhile will be cancer-themed. Perhaps research summarized here may help others also looking for information to help them with difficult decisions about their treatment.

But today is a biotune day. I am a huge Stephen Sondheim fan, and spent the last couple nights watching separately the first and second acts of one of his best, "Into the Woods." As a kid I worked through all the fairy tale books in our elementary school library at about the same time that other girls were working their way through all the horse books. I enjoy not only the traditional originals, but creatively reworked versions as well (which to be clear does not apply to much of anything out of Disney studios).

"Into the Woods" was constructed similarly to Sondheim's previous musical, also brilliant, called "Sunday in the Park with George." Its theme was the lonely isolationism of the driven artist, but the two acts creatively contrasted the difficulties of the art business a hundred years ago versus in modern times.

"Into the Woods" makes even more of a thematic leap between its two acts. The first act is an intertwining of several well known fairly tales into one interlocking story, in which the characters all interact with one another in clever new ways. It addresses the simple, traditional fairy tale theme of overcoming a difficult challenge (represented by having to go "into the woods"), after which the main characters live "happily ever after." Even in the brutal original versions of the Grimm tales, usually someone we are rooting for comes out on top in the end. At the end of Sondheim's first act, the convoluted plot leads us eventually to the familiar happy endings - Cinderella gets her prince, Rapunzel and her prince are reunited, Red Riding Hood and her grandmother are saved from the wolf, and Jack kills the giant by chopping down the beanstalk.

The second act, however, takes a right turn by introducing the idea that actually, there is no such thing as "happily ever after." In real life, there will continually be obstacles to overcome - and not only the relatively minor obstacles that pepper the tales in the first act, but major obstacles that force us to face intense suffering and grief head-on. After the wife of Jack's slain giant goes on a rampage, killing several of the characters, the culminating, haunting song, "No One is Alone," is sung by the remaining grown-ups to the children Red Riding Hood and Jack, to explain to them that despite the harsh realities of life, we can find a way to move on. It always made me a bit weepy from the first time I heard it twenty years ago, but it now takes on a new poignance as I head deep into the woods myself. (Here are the lyrics, with the caveat that lyrics without music are a poor substitute for the real thing.)

But the simple, final lyrics of the show are the most applicable for anyone hitting a bump in the road:

"Into the woods, then out of the woods, and home before dark."

Labels: forests, music