) but I doubt it. The songs were good, the acting didn't bother me much and the stage wasn't as awful as some people made it out to be. I think it was the subject matter that made JCS hard for me to grasp.
You see, I'm an agnostic. I don't believe in God or any other deity and I don't mind if you do, as long as you're not trying to get me to convert. After Estonia regained its independence and we got back the churches I went through a phase where I wanted to be christened, not because I particularly believed in God but because "all the cool kids were doing it". It was the reaction to the liberation from the Socialist State, where there could be no gods, and everyone was going to church. I read the children's bible twice and figured I knew enough to make an informed decision. Unfortunately you needed the parents' consent to be christened and my father refused to give his. I remember being furious and plotting ways to get around it. But I eventually lost interest and the fad ended pretty soon. And when I grew up I realized that the desire had nothing to do with being closer to God - it was just another desperate attempt to get further away from the country's socialist past by doing everything that was forbidden during the 50 occupation years.
My point is that my problem with JCS wasn't that I didn't know about the subject matter. I knew enough to see that it had been mixed and messed with to make a better production and I could recognize most of the characters and understand what was their part in the outcome. The problem was that I was detached from the characters. Half through the show I started thinking about religion in general and why is it that people define their essence through suffering. Why does suffering and denying yourself make you holy in the eyes of God and man? Why is God made out to be a vengeful deity and why has it been the same for thousands of years and hundreds of other gods? Why did people create their deities to the likeness of themselves and not better than themselves?
I didn't find the answers in JCS. It was a musical, there weren't meant to be any answers there. But there wasn't any emotion either. I didn't understand what were the director's feelings about Jesus, I didn't understand the creators' feelings about the New Testament. There was no message, it was just a show.
*****
Yes, I got distracted again! Damn! I'm never going to finish the entry at this rate. But, I am stubborn so...
When in Tartu, we stayed with Bryan who I still haven't thanked properly for letting me and my family use his flat as our personal rent-free home away from home. I'll probably have to offer him my firstborn to pay him back. Oh well... If there ever is a firstborn then we'll see what he thinks of the offer.
The day after the show we didn't leave immediately but spent half the day walking around Tartu and I acted as a tour guide to Mum and her friend. Sometimes it felt as if they'd never been to Tartu. They regarded every shortcut and small street with the suspicion Mum usually reserves for the especially gross stuff our dog finds in the yard. I hope, after that Saturday, they won't at least get lost in the old town of Tartu anymore.
That wasn't the only time I visited Tartu in June by far. I was there again the next Friday because that was the day that Bryan and Ricardo and, three hours later,
Sally graduated. So, naturally, I had to be there to congratulate them and avoid being on any of the pictures and take part in the celebrations later. Suffice to say, that I stayed with Bryan again and we didn't get to sleep before five o'clock.
A few days passed and I was in Tartu again - this time for the graduation of Alex and some others from the Department of Economy. We went out for Chinese and a lot of beer but the celebrations were over pretty soon, since Alex had to head back to Tallinn and Ron's girlfriend is pregnant and was getting tired. So I headed back to Bryan's place again but he wasn't there this time and I was so bored that I decided to go to sleep at 10. Plus, the next day was mid-summer's day and that usually means staying up most of the night celebrating.
I got on the bus the next morning to go to Pärnu and saw Ricardo there. Since it's always more fun to travel with someone else we made people switch seats so that we could be seated together and started a 2,5-hour chat beginning with "I was so bored last night" (me), "I had to be at work till 4 AM" (him), continuing with the political analysis of Estonian multi-party system (him talking, me listening while trying not to seem too stupid) and ending with gossiping about mutual acquaintances.
Sally came to meet us at the bus station and we decided to head to Ricardo's immediately, to set up for the mid-summer's celebrations instead of waiting for Rogelio to come and collect us in his car, which had been the original plan. We got the salad done and everything set up and only then did Rogelio and the rest arrive. Looking back, I see that it must've been their plan all along - to arrive when the food is ready and there's very little to do but open your beers and demand for the cook to hurry up with the grill.
The celebrations themselves were fun and, surprisingly, intrigue-free. There were some people I didn't know so well and that made it even more fun since they weren't freaked by the dirtyness of our in-jokes and the general carefree behaviour but joined in easily. You'd be surprised how rarely that happens. But we found how grown up we really are when everyone felt like going to bed at 2. That is virtually unprecedented and, unfortunately, it foreshadows the time where we all feel that it's a stretch to stay up till midnight on New Year's Eve. I'm worried!
Of course, Ricardo managed to lessen the adult feelings when he broke a second story window with a hippity hop. I'm not really sure how he managed that, since he was aiming for a bench that was ON THE GROUND. I guess this proves that even though a hippity hop might be suitable as a volleyball (and it is, I have pictures to prove it) it is not, in fact, a football.
The next morning I woke up early because, due to lack of room, I'd had to share a narrow bed with Bryan and was afraid of falling off it. I was listening to the rain outside and wondering how much of it would be pouring in through the broken window. Finally I had enough of just lying there and decided to sneak outside through the sleeping house. Have you noticed how it's possible not to make any noise when you're home, alone and can hear everything your neighbours do or say; even though all you'd really like is not to hear that? And conversely, how it's impossible to be quiet when you're trying not to wake anyone? I managed to stumble on the stairs, step on the cat and make the dog bark before I finally got outside.
I wasn't alone for long since, apparently, I had managed to wake up everyone in the house and soon they wanted food. We found that we still had some chicken and some ice cream. The added challenge of grilling the chicken while it was raining outside only made the meal more interesting. And then it was time to gather up the stuff and go home to prepare for the final workday before the vacation. During the clean-up phase Bryan and I demonstrated what gender equality means by making the bed together. We had some trouble with folding the bedsheet but, overall, you could really call it a 50/50 effort. Gender equality is important!
* JCS was an open-air show. And before the end of the first act it started to rain. And it wasn't some mild rain that you barely notice. No! It was the ultimate rain! The rain that you feel through your sweater, two jackets and the raincoat you barely had time to put on. The rain that bounces off the leather jacket of the guy in front of you (who turned out to be the previous Minister of Agriculture but that's another story) and manages to wet your glasses with a single drop. The rain that comes down with such a force that the sound it creates makes it impossible to hear anything coming out of the speakers and see anything that is more than a meter away from you. The rain that finally turns to hail in an effort to pry the people from their seats. return to reading
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