Behind the Broken Words

The Ricketson Theatre is now much like the world in Genesis: before the lights come up we hear the word, many words, well-chosen words. We hear the voices of Roscoe Lee Browne and Anthony Zerbe, distinguished theatre, cinema, and television actors, who have hand-picked thematic excerpts from their favorite poems and plays, and who deliver them luxuriantly, thoughtfully.

Browne and Zerbe are old men, gods, murderers, and rogues. Like the bards from whom they quote, they are "Never to make a line [they] have not heard in [their] own heart." We see them build walls and break them down. They ask important questions about war and peace, life and death, love and hate.

They tell us, through the poets' words, "We must love one another or die," and that "We could keep this planet warm from friction if the sun should fail."

The crazier things become, the more crucial the voice of poetry (and the arts) in creating images that make sense. "Come in under the shadow of this red rock, and I will show you something different from either your shadow at morning striding behind you or your shadow at evening rising to meet you ... "

Mixing Eliot, Ferlinghetti, Millay, Cummings, Yeats, Auden, Thomas, and others, Browne and Zerbe bring us Behind the Broken Words. It runs through November 21st. 303-893-4100.

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