mary_wroth got tickets to the The Grand Inquisitor, a one-act play at the New York Theater Workshop based on the only chapter of The Brothers Karamazov that I liked (Part II, Book 5, Chapter 5), in which Christ returns to Earth at the height of the Inquisition, and performs miracles the day after the Grand Inquisitor had a hundred heretics burned at the stake.

( Summarization, if you haven't already read it )

I found the performance absolutely riveting. Bruce Meyers as the Grand Inquisitor delivered an hour-long monologue with passion and fire, capturing both the Inquisitor's terrifying ruthlessness as well as his twisted and condescending sense of compassion. Jake Smith, as Christ, had probably the harder job, sitting still and listening intently, without saying a word, not even moving until the final kiss.

It was an improvement over the book, actually. Meyers was credited as the "Narrator," not as the Inquisitor, because the story is told in the third person, up until the Inquisitor begins talking to Christ, at which point it just becomes one long monologue. So Meyers sets the scene and tells the story of Christ in the street, then puts on a long black cloak and enters the character of the Inquisitor.

In the so-called novel, the story is told by the "bad brother," Ivan, to the "good brother," Alyosha. It's a poem he planned to write, but never did, and he tells Alyosha the whole story. The monologue concludes when the Inquisitor says, "Tomorrow I shall burn you. Dixi." ("Dixi" is Latin for "I have spoken.") At that point in the book, Alyosha can no longer contain himself and argues with Ivan, and the story is interrupted. The coda, when Christ kisses the Inquisitor and the Inquisitor lets him go, is explained in dialog between the two of them, following which Ivan immediately repudiates the whole thing. "But it's nonsense, Alyosha, it's just the muddled poem of a muddled student who never wrote two lines of verse."

My overall problem with The Brothers Karamazov is that it isn't really a novel, it's a bunch of philosophical discourses forced through the mouths of artificial and annoying characters, with ludicrous plot action strewn around here and there, like the sad little bushes in a concrete Midtown plaza, to justify calling it a novel. Stripping away all the novelistic trappings made the monologue much more compelling, as did, of course, Meyers's performance.

It's also well worth thinking about in light of my post yesterday. The Inquisitor represents the ultimate in cynicism (as does Ivan, just less compellingly) -- the belief that humanity cannot handle freedom, but instead prefers to be coddled by ruthless authoritarians. The song I mentioned yesterday, "Dear Leader," the one I removed from my Myspace page, took exactly that viewpoint.

Of course, Dostoevsky, with that final kiss, rejected the viewpoint as well. The Inquisitor does not change his mind, but clearly, Christ was the victor in the exchange, without having said a word.

In any case, we enjoyed the performance, as well as an overpriced but rather excellent vegetarian meal at Counter. Afterward, we went to the Strand because I really wanted to pick up a King James bible. I was hoping for a used one, but instead got a modern "study bible" with all sorts of fancy maps and such. WORDS OF CHRIST IN RED! Oh and also ten pounds of H.L. Mencken, (The American Language and its two supplements).

Tags: politics, religion