I went to see this musical day before yesterday, and absolutely loved it!! It's a story about living with AIDS amidst a culture of poverty and rampant drug use in the West Village of NYC ca. the early 90s. At that time the stigma attached to AIDS was tremendous- in fact, it's well-documented that in the Reagan-era, insufficient to no funding was provided for research into a cure because it was classified as a disease of the "depraved" (i.e., gay men primarily). Today I work in an NIH-funded lab whose main thrust is malignancies associated with AIDS...
This week we have a visiting postdoctoral fellow ('postdoc' to the science lingo-wise!) from Brazil, from whom I learned that the goverment of Brazil has mandated that all AIDS patients should receive the clinical standard three-drug cocktail of antiretroviral drugs free of charge. Their goverment has worked out a deal with the American Pharmas that hold the patents to these drugs, so that their people may benefit. The results are remarkable- they have cut their rate of infection significantly and have actually achieved a decrease in prevalence! I wonder why more world goverments do not take a cue from their example. AIDS awareness is an important and necessary step, but it cannot be the be-all and end-all of governmental-led initiatives. My home country of India provides 1 drug (out of the 3 considered standard) free of cost to pregnant women to prevent disease spread via this route. But as any scientist can tell you, treating a virus as highly mutagenic as HIV with only 1 drug will lead in time tothe development of drug-resistant mutants, which will pose an even bigger problem later on. I fail to see why a problem so fundamentally individual in nature is privy to the whims of global economics and politics. I won't even get started on those that oppose awareness initiatives because they would like to turn a blind eye to what is going on in their country, and would rather condemn their nation's poor while spouting moralistic maxims as justification for their deliberate and calculated misanthropy. Meanwhile, in Africa, global donations to provide relief to the poor diseased masses fatten the pockets of the powerful...
Back to the musical..."Rent", written and scored by Jonathan Larson, won the Pulitzer Prize for Best Drama in 1996. Its message is simple yet powerful. The author's choice of music as his vehicle adds to its power, since there is no language more universal. Sample these lyrics from "Seasons of love"(my favorite song of the night):
525,600 minutes, 525,000 moments so dear.
525,600 minutes - how do you measure, measure a year?
In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee.
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife.
In 525,600 minutes - how do you measure a year in the life? How about love? How about love? How about love? Measure in love. Seasons of love.
525,600 minutes! 525,000 journeys to plan. 525,600 minutes - how can you measure the life of a woman or man?
In truths that she learned, or in times that he cried. In bridges he burned, or the way that she died.
It’s time now to sing out, though the story never ends let's celebrate remember a year in the life of friends. Remember the love! Remember the love! Remember the love! Measure in love. Seasons of love! Seasons of love!
Not very profound, I admit, but therein lies the beauty...
I know this musical is not very "musical-ish"- there are no can-can dancers, grand dance numbers, a Punch-and-Judy-ish duo, or sparkly sequined costumes. There is a love story though- three, in fact. In many ways, this is the anti-musical musical (if you've seen it, you'll know what I'm talking about), and that's probably no mistake. "Rent" was actually an Off-Broadway production that was brought to Broadway. Its subject matter would still be considered very risque and inappropriate to some...but it's a testament to human nature that in a sea of hypocrisy there can be born enough genuine love and acceptance for this show to become an accepted part of mainstream culture. For this, I am grateful...
Famous last words: "The opposite of war is not peace, it's creation".
1 comment:
I love the famous last words. Who's are they?
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