it slams into our consciousness

Hamilton: The Gestalt

the story of the past is no transparent, linear

recitation of how things came to be 

back then and into the now,

timelines and narration can give us the illusion

that how things came to be

is all rational and accessible

to a consensus of agreement,

rather, reality can lurch from the improbable through the fantastic, 

and only touch upon the predictable,

we can look backwards and trick ourselves 

into thinking that we can know the cause of the effect,

Hamilton is devastatingly powerful

in its telling of people, events, relationships,

Hamilton slams into our consciousness 

with the surety of scripted choreography,

driving orchestration and song,

with its spectacular staging, 

as levels and lighting and costume

frame the virtuosity of score and performance,

of the living, and dying, reality before us,

personalities and conflicts reduced and expanded

to what can fit on stage,

to what can be told without nuanced subtlety,

the visceral leap into this world so gripping

that theaters fill as countless of us make a path to their doors,

what is important in Hamilton is the power of the presentation,

as personalities harmonize and conflict with each other,

as the human world wrenches with ideas:

flesh-and-blood in the throes of the abstract,

the abstract intermingled with the physicality of self and ego,

as those of color embody those of the past,

even those who could not see past their own blinders,

the actors of color are fully there and real to truth,

what a tribute to New York, and America,

as where one can define one’s self anew,

just as actor and medium here define Hamilton’s story anew,

I cannot quite know that the gestalt of this musical masterpiece

elucidates or obscures individual pieces of the truth of the time,

I do quite know that the gestalt of this musical masterpiece

opens doors into the past and present

that takes our breath away

and opens us into the power of its truth.

by Henry H. Walker

September 16, ‘19