Using theater in a quest for meaning: a journey based on stories, myths and legends. And questions. Hoping to find a way through the labyrinth of life.
The journey, the quest
On one’s own.
One drops into life and very soon realizes that he/she is on his/her own. Getting company might be reassuring – some travel companions are preferable to others –, but, all in all, life is always a personal journey.
During that journey one can focus on what is seemingly important or interesting – the company, the scenery, the needs, the habits or attitudes of others, the costs, the surprises, both good and bad… -, but, as a matter of fact, life seems always to be about a quest. Which, however many shapes it might take, eventually reveals itself to be always the same: finding one’s way to happiness.
But what is it that makes one happy?
The quest seems to be always about something missing, something that one would like to get hold of. A Grail of some sort, one could say: what form it takes and where one can really find it, it’s really impossible to say.
One can look elsewhere, even forget such quest, but underneath, perhaps with different names – desires, expectations, even prejudices… – it is always there and it becomes a reference for how one feels during the journey.
Stories
How will one travel in such a journey? Basically living, meeting, telling stories.
We all keep going through stories that become our own, explaining how we feel about the world.
Sometimes they give us insights, possibly because of a quest we might not even be aware.
Stories of our own, stories of others, myths, legends that touch, surprise, entertain: stories that could also be fictional, but are for some reasons interesting.
Stories that speak to us.
Because they speak about us.
Or, rather, about aspects that seem important to us: aspirations, discoveries, frustrations, even losses in which, for some reason, we recognize our own memories, experiences, emotions.
Stories that, while travelling, are, as a matter of fact, the only authentically shared language, witnessing the journey we all feel we are through.
In the labyrinth
So, a journey of stories.
And it’s a blind journey.
Sometimes stories refer to specific characters, physical places or situations, sometimes about an area – work, family, love… –, according to the nature of the relationships we see or experience.
But no journey has a given shape, known as such. It has a starting point, and, as in life the only, ultimate conclusion is death, the rest is just journeying, shaped by life itself.
Therefore, it is difficult, even impossible to say where one really is in his/her journeying.
When at forks or crossroads, doubts appear. One would like maps, signs, clues: which way to go?
In short, if this exploration must have a shape, the labyrinth/maze would possibly be the one, monsters included: areas or relationships that for some reason feel troublesome, frighten, trigger prejudice.
So, we can name our labyrinths, sure, but on this journey it will not be enough.
It is as if, at least, two more dimensions intersect.
A more personal one: a story is an emotional labyrinth, in which the traveler meets and has to come to terms with memories, experiences, emotions. Resurfacing, everything seems to offer a choice, a chance: should the story keep ending the usual, known way or can it evolve in some direction?
Another, more public, social one: as humans, and therefore living beings relating to others, we all are living in a culture that adds up, multiplies and conditions behaviors. Social pressure, decorum, whatever is seen as appropriate by the majority becomes socially valuable and, even if sometimes uncomfortable, going against it can be costly.
Both are mythological dimensions: whether personal or social, myth tries to explain reality with a story, often emphasizing the difference between what one lives and what one would like to live. In stories such dimensions intertwine and overlap, confusing the traveller and setting him/her off to the quest for (more) happiness already mentioned.
Questioning, the driving force
What’s the driving force for such journey through stories?
Even if we can talk abot a quest for happiness, as already mentioned, we can be more specific talking about needs, in any different form – emotional, economic, relational… – they could be named. Or about curiosity, the desire to know, to experiment, to learn more, always hoping that the chosen path will eventually make one feel happier.
In any case, such driving force can be translated into a powerful working tool: the question.
Seeking answers requires a question.
Or, rather: it is the right question that allows the journey to progress.
What is it that would make me happy so that I would not want anything more?
The thread in the labyrinth
In short: it will be a journey through a labyrinth of stories, whose protagonists are on a quest to be happy. Or rather, happier. Stories that, sown together, become a thread that draws one’s life path, the summary of how all the different questions have been answered.
A thread that, as in the myth of Theseus and Ariadne, could allow to find one’s way back. And, potentially, to exit the labyrinth.
Whoever follows The thread in the labyrinth will set off on a journey through stories to retrace the questions behind their own story, one’s own path. Questions to reflect upon, alone and with others, in the awareness that the choices towards happiness anyone has taken might lead to understand better in the here and now why we all are who we are. And, more than all, to question where to go from there.
To know more of The thread in the labyrinth: CLICK HERE.
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