DID SHAKESPEARE GET IT RIGHT?

"All the world is a stage, and all the men and women merely players...." When Shakespeare wrote that, he had more than 17th century England in mind. It was an epiphanic bolt of insight for every century. All nicely wrapped up inside iambic pentameter...!

Now think about it. Every presidential news conference is a stage replete with lights, cues and scripts. Every interview with Mayor Daley is another stage replete with lights, cues and dangling participles. Every newscast, weather report, talking head commentary, Letterman guest appearance, cop-giving-a-ticket incident, catcher-talking-to-pitcher moment, and downtown maitre d' seating is very much a stage too on which the players strut their stuff. And lest our egos let us forget, each and every time we comb our hair, set our makeup and go out into the world, we too are players on a stage where we too are hoping to get our cues right.

The point to this small wisdom is simply this. The players -- and their audience -- need to recognize the fuzzy, fragile line at which players cross from reality into performance mode. If we don't, all the world remains just that. A stage on which we can no longer tell the difference.

One convenient test is available right here in Chicagoland's theatre districts. From Marriott Lincolnshire in the north to Drury Lane in the south plus all the Goodmans, Steppenwolfs and Cadillac Palaces in between, we're gifted with scores of performers lighting up stages and creating grand illusions every night. The test comes if and when you go backstage with the players. To know them is a happy little pleasure by which you can discover for yourself that magical bridge between what is and what they want you to believe is!

What is is a troupe of baggy pants, makeup-less employees trudging through a dark backstage door into crowded little dressing rooms stuck somewhere behind giant curtains, sets and pulleys all overseen by a seen-it-all-before stage manager with a cue sheet. The players bring with them troubles from their families, over-due credit card bills, all the very same burdens the audience bring. Actually not much different than the employee locker room at the local plant, at the city bus depot, or the office lunchroom.

And yet there is an inexpressible difference here, for here in the whispered darkness of backstage an astonishing transmutation is about to happen. In another few minutes, the drudgery of everyday life will leap into special life. That celebrated life which has been captivating audiences long before Shakespeare. To know these cast members back-stage as well as on-stage is a gratifying privilege and joy. Privilege because of their talents to entertain; joy because you see exactly how they make this entertainment happen.

Cut back to our presidential news conference, newscasts, maitre d's, and those supposedly tell-all closeups with Oprah and Barbara. As an audience to these stages, we may not always have a backstage experience to draw upon. So in order to tell the difference between what is and what they want us to believe there is, we may need to pull from other sources. Our life experiences, our personal value systems, and especially our instincts about the difference between the sincere and the staged.

Shakespeare and Chicagoland theatre prefer you simply enjoy the performance. Democracy prefers you seriously study the performance.