This is the moment we are let in on the universe

Anyway, while I reorganise my finances, my kofi is back up.

Like, I keep thinking about a version of Assassins where you come out of the theatre at the end absolutely hating The Balladeer, a version where he’s played as more of a villain than Prop, or even the assassins themselves are. Obviously that does sort of take away from the message Sondheim wanted to give with the show, but we’re putting that aside for the moment because like, c’mon, it’s Evil Balladeer.  Just. The idea that he would be genuinely angry and disgusted at the assassins and their behaviour, and thus he’d take actual delight and genuine joy in their deaths and their suffering and see it as a form of “justice” is a completely valid interpretation of his character, I think. Give me a version of Assassins where he’s laughing as they die, where he’s genuinely mocking and hateful of them all, where he watches them all suffer and you can see just how much he’s enjoying it, just how happy it makes him to watch these people fail and fall and be destroyed by their own ideals, because they’re evil, they’re shameless and disgraceful and they go against everything that him and his county stands for, and they’re getting what they deserve.  This of course also changes the impact of The Balladeer becoming Lee, because maybe now we see that as revenge, that The Balladeer is getting his dues. Maybe we’re still shocked by it, but we don’t feel bad for The Balladeer, maybe there’s a sense of satisfaction instead, maybe we start to agree with the assassins and we’re glad that the embodiment of hope is dead.  And then what does that say about us?

Of course with this there’s also the potential for the exact opposite, which is a version of the Balladeer that gets upset and grieves when the assassins die or fail, that feels real sympathy for them and tries so hard to make them see that killing isn’t necessary, not because he doesn’t like them doing it, but because he knows it only ends with their deaths and doesn’t actually make a difference, and he doesn’t want them to die, they’re not bad people, it’s not all their fault. A version of the Balladeer who can see the failures and the corruptions of America and turns away when Booth dies, who cannot bring himself to cajole Guiteau as he dances towards his end, because he knows how unfair it is, and he doesn’t want the assassins to die under the pretence of trying to better a nation that left them for dead, but also knows that there’s absolutely nothing he can do to help them, who knows that his job is simply to tell the stories and keep history moving, as much as it pains him because he looks ahead to the future and knows that the cycle continues and that nothing is changing.  Would this be a version of the Balladeer who knows that his destiny is to become Oswald and accepts it? Who knew the shape of his end before it even began and has long since made his peace with it, even if he cannot with the deaths of the others?  Or would this be a version of the Balladeer who volunteers to become Oswald, who is so tired of watching others fail and fall that he steps up to the plate and decides to try and put and end to it once and for all, that throws away the morals of his country in defence of the people wronged by it, because this was not the American dream, and if he can sacrifice one for the good of many, then doesn’t he have a duty to do so as the holder of hope, isn’t that his responsibility?