Cain's rebellion, which leads to fratricide, is powerful because it is so familiar, because it is in each of us. Chester carried this off beautifully.
I loved how Cain is mirrored in the second act by Japheth (again portrayed by Derek Chester: who, like the actor who played both Noah and Adam, had to be both reminiscent of his earlier role and still differentiate between the generations; both succeeded) and his descendant Yonah, whose character has always interested me. She is not only the familiar type of the perceived inferior who in fact behaves better than her superiors, but an archetype reflected back on itself. When she throws herself between Japheth and the brother whose head he is about to stave in, it's as though she's interfering in that first, ancient act of murder: she undoes in that moment the curse whose inherited mark she bears. And I think it's no accident that only then does the rain stop and the floodwaters begin to recede.
Yes, the forty days and forty nights are at an end, but I think that might also be the moment when God realizes, perhaps for the first time, that parentage is not what defines a person. "Ever since the flood began," Noah says to Yonah, "the blood of Cain has risen in all of us—but never in you." Cain's children are not Cain. God's children are not God. They will be themselves, not what he assumes or desires them to be. And so, finally, he can let them grow on their own.
And it's quite an experience to be in the restroom at intermission when Cain pops in, says "excuse me", and proceeds to wash the mark off his forehead.
no subject
I loved how Cain is mirrored in the second act by Japheth (again portrayed by Derek Chester: who, like the actor who played both Noah and Adam, had to be both reminiscent of his earlier role and still differentiate between the generations; both succeeded) and his descendant Yonah, whose character has always interested me. She is not only the familiar type of the perceived inferior who in fact behaves better than her superiors, but an archetype reflected back on itself. When she throws herself between Japheth and the brother whose head he is about to stave in, it's as though she's interfering in that first, ancient act of murder: she undoes in that moment the curse whose inherited mark she bears. And I think it's no accident that only then does the rain stop and the floodwaters begin to recede.
Yes, the forty days and forty nights are at an end, but I think that might also be the moment when God realizes, perhaps for the first time, that parentage is not what defines a person. "Ever since the flood began," Noah says to Yonah, "the blood of Cain has risen in all of us—but never in you." Cain's children are not Cain. God's children are not God. They will be themselves, not what he assumes or desires them to be. And so, finally, he can let them grow on their own.
And it's quite an experience to be in the restroom at intermission when Cain pops in, says "excuse me", and proceeds to wash the mark off his forehead.
That's mythologically cool. : )