When my previous posting mentioned having a transcendent time at Susannah Mars' holiday cabaret, Mars on Life, little did I know that Susannah had been through a harrowing performing experience only days before.
One of the warmest and most transporting moments of the show is a song entitled "Thalj" -- "Snow." Song entirely in Arabic, Susannah uses this music and its language and her voice to give us the special gift of shared wonder with another culture, one that is little understood by most of the world, I'm sure.
Evidently not everybody has appreciated the interlude. Well, one person, anyway. The show was disrupted last week by an outraged spectator. You can read an account of this on a Portland theater blog called OnStage; currently this posting is the top one. Playwright and actor Patrick Wohlmut (a frequent contributor to this blog) eloquently describes the event as well as its implications for us -- please check it out if you can.
