Fires in the Mirror

" The answer is every-single-synagogue,

temple,

mosque,

in

the

world

stops traffic

when five thousand people have to walk out

at the same time."

For me this quote from Rabbi Shea Hecht is so poignant because the premise of the play is that none of the different players, who all fall on different ends of the opinion spectrum regarding the incident, see that blaming each other will not accomplish anything, At the risk of sounding cliche, working together or at least using open lines of communication would allow for some closure on the Cato/ Yankelbaum incident and settling of the resulting unrest. All of the production elements of the play serve to illuminate the differences and divide between the characters. I would imagine the play being staged on a dark stage except for a spotlight on the character telling his or her part of the story. The other characters would be unseen or in the shadows. I think Smith includes the detailed descriptions of their setting and outfits because a. they do a good job of giving a fuller representation of the character, b. the different styles of the two sides are so drastically different and c. a single scene with just the one character could be easily recreated. I think in theatrical production Fires in the Mirror should be staged in a series of little vignettes containing just the character. When the character's monologue ends, the lights go down. They then go up on a different vignette and a different character. The viewer pieces together the story in steps from all of the different characters . I think that telling the story in this way would best depict the actual events.