Week Three: Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Hedwig and the Angry Inch / Fuch’s Questions:
The scenario in this musical is the recycled set of the disastrous-fictional musical “Hurt Locker: The Musical” which recalls the Hurt Locker movie scenes of the remains of a Middle Eastern street bombarded and in ruins. This space feels dirty, with piercing edges and shapes, it is undesirable and murky.
The stage kind of places us at the beginning of Hedwig's (Hansel, 26-year-old) life story –a bomb crater near the Berlin wall on the Eastside in 1988- but as Hedwig is sequentially recounting her love story, time moves away from the stage-set and pass through Hedwig’s heartfelt memories. This space of time sounds agitated within the rock roll music and the lyrics that linearly interweave Hedwig recount until the end of her storytelling when she/he walks into a bright light.
It is not clear how much time has passed in this story, but if I refer to the original version of this musical which was first performed in 1997, then it would be approximately 9 years of Hedwig's life.
By carefully following the trajectory of this time we are placed in a private and tempestuous world of the fragmented life of Hedwig, the tension of these fragments denotes the struggle resulting from the physical and emotional laceration that transforms a Hansel into a Hedwig.
"I GAVE A PIECE TO MY MOTHER
I GAVE A PIECE TO MY MAN
I GAVE A PIECE TO THE ROCK START
HE TOOK THE GOOD STUFF AND RAN "
Hedwig's redemption befalls unexpectedly when she hears her lover the infamous ex-lover Tommy a well-known rock icon, pleading for her forgiveness.
"FORGIVE ME,
FOR I DID NOT KNOW" ...
.."AND NOW I UNDERSTAND
HOW MUCH I TOOK FROM YOU:"
For me, asking for forgiveness is the source that liberates the spirit. I think that this is precisely what enables Hedwig to liberate himself from the heavy masks he has been bearing, like her wig and her fake tits. This act symbolizes a re-encounter with her/his own soul that makes her/him a supreme being - a whole –
“BREATHE FEEL LOVE
GIVE FREE
KNOW IN YOUR SOUL
LIKE YOUR BLOOD KNOWS THE WAY
FROM YOUR HEART TO YOUR BRAIN
KNOW THAT YOU’RE WHOLE”
I identify with the battles that I have had to struggle through my life experiences, feeling isolated in a faraway land, feeling empty and with a broken core after losing my husband, and continuously searching for new and enriched possibilities of growth.
‘CAUSE WITH ALL THE CHANGES
YOU’VE BEEN THROUGH,
IT SEEMS THE STRANGERS’S ALWAYS YOU
ALONE AGAIN IN SOME NEW
WICKED LITTLE TOWN,”
My Sentences:
Hedwig and the Angry Inch is about the battles we endure in the intimate exploration of the real crux of our existence.
Hedwig and Angry Inch examine in detail how the choices we make alter the course of our reality. Each action implies a reaction, this response is a sacrifice that leaves a scar, and each wound will liberate us until we achieve a catharsis that purifies our own selves.
