INTERVIEW WITH
CHARLIE THURSTON
PLAYWRIGHT OF LIFTED
'LIFTED' PLAYWRIGHT CHARLIE THURSTON
You called this play a “mediation” on the Icarus tale - what does that mean exactly, and how much did that inspiration factor into the writing of the play itself?
I describe it as a mediation because my story is inspired by and in conversation with the mythology as opposed to directly adapted from it. The play samples images (ex. humans taking flight) and themes (the desire to escape) but rebels against the myth in one critical way. “Lifted,” unlike the Icarus tale, isn’t a story culminating in hubris. I’m not interested in perpetuating the concept that bad behavior leads to one’s comeuppance. We don't see much of that in the real world. Too often, because of a mixture of societal failures and bad luck, tragedy happens to the innocent.
Why do you think humankind has always been obsessed with flying?
Because it would be awesome!! Right?! Defying the hold of gravity and taking off, exploring the sky--this massive frontier otherwise off limits to us (non-pilots.) And the sensations! It would be like driving with the windows down on the highway times 1000. And beyond the bodily thrill of it, I think we're drawn to it for more conceptual reasons. I believe that for all of us, even if we love our life, there are moments--some long, song short--when we desperately want to take off, to escape it all. To have immediate, nonsensical freedom. Flying is the embodiment of that concept. Some part of us longs for it.
I describe it as a mediation because my story is inspired by and in conversation with the mythology as opposed to directly adapted from it. The play samples images (ex. humans taking flight) and themes (the desire to escape) but rebels against the myth in one critical way. “Lifted,” unlike the Icarus tale, isn’t a story culminating in hubris. I’m not interested in perpetuating the concept that bad behavior leads to one’s comeuppance. We don't see much of that in the real world. Too often, because of a mixture of societal failures and bad luck, tragedy happens to the innocent.
Why do you think humankind has always been obsessed with flying?
Because it would be awesome!! Right?! Defying the hold of gravity and taking off, exploring the sky--this massive frontier otherwise off limits to us (non-pilots.) And the sensations! It would be like driving with the windows down on the highway times 1000. And beyond the bodily thrill of it, I think we're drawn to it for more conceptual reasons. I believe that for all of us, even if we love our life, there are moments--some long, song short--when we desperately want to take off, to escape it all. To have immediate, nonsensical freedom. Flying is the embodiment of that concept. Some part of us longs for it.
