Intro
Welcome to Time's Corner, an occasional newsletter from Christian Leithart. I’m co-founder of Little Word and editor of Good Work magazine. By day, I teach, and by night, I edit this newsletter.
Today’s issue is a note I sent out to my school about our production of The Scarlet Pimpernel, which I adapted for the stage. The play opens on Thursday, and you can buy tickets here, if you wish.
Playing the Part
This year the theater department at the Upper School is pleased to produce an original adaptation of The Scarlet Pimpernel, based on the novel by Baroness Orczy and the 1934 film version and written for the stage by me, Christian Leithart.
If you’ve never heard of The Scarlet Pimpernel, you’re in for a treat. It’s been called the original superhero story because it contains one of the first characters who hides his heroic activities behind a mild-mannered alter ego. By day, Sir Percy Blakeney is a bird-brained English gentleman who cares about nothing but clothes. By night, he is the Scarlet Pimpernel, a daring swordsman and master of disguise who rescues French aristocrats from the guillotine.
In many ways, Sir Percy is a model for all the actors. Each of them—villain, sidekick, heroine, and extra—is putting on a show. They all have to put their egos aside and be silly for a couple of hours for the sake of entertaining the audience. But underneath the make-up and flamboyant costumes, each of them is taking part in a very important mission.
The fact is, we all entertain ourselves, whether by reading books or watching TV or scrolling through Facebook. It’s human nature to enjoy music, good stories, and pleasing pictures. The question is not whether we will be entertained, only what will entertain us. And most of what entertains us today is created in far-off places by professionals we’ve never met. We live by their standard of what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable. Not all of it is unhealthy, but very little of it is local.
Next week, for two nights, the students have an opportunity to change that. They are going to put on a show written by their director for the sake of entertaining their family, friends, and the broader community. Each of them will play a necessary part in its success. High school theater may seem like a small thing compared to rescuing French aristocrats from certain death, but such “artistic localism” meets the very real need of human beings to enjoy beauty.
The students may look like they’re “playing the fool,” but their calling is as noble as any other.
Dispatch from Broken Bow
A month into the school year and life hasn’t yet found its ballast. It doesn’t help that I started leading music at church and directing a play at school around the same time that I began teaching again. There’s plenty to occupy us. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
There are moments of stillness: standing in front of the stove with my son in my arms, his head on my shoulder, listening to Banjo Mantras while we wait for the pasta to cook.
Links
Silence & Starsong published a piece of flash fiction I wrote. (Online, but it still counts, right?)
If you’re familiar with Dorothy Sayers’ lecture on the Trivium (I wrote some notes about it on my blog), you should read her lecture on learning Latin. Lots to talk about between the two—that is, if you’re involved with classical Christian education.
I’m trying to be ruthless when subscribing to newsletters (do I really want this in my inbox?), so I haven’t subscribed to Perfect Sentences. I did, however, spend a quarter of an hour appreciating the sentences therein.
Speaking of perfect sentences, it’s well worth your time to read the 2024 entries to the Lyttle Lytton contest, a list of the worst opening sentences Adam Cadre’s readers can come up with. Adam based his idea on the official Bulwer-Lytton contest, but I think his selections are funnier. Examples:
“She had a face like a chair, in all the best ways.”
“I was running at Mach cheetah through the streets, faster than me or my enemies could even fathom.”
Up To
Reading: Swallows and Amazons, by Arthur Ransome
Watching: The Warriors, a late-70s action film loosely based on Xenophon’s Anabasis. “Can you dig it?”
Listening: Banjo Mantras, by Kendl Winter
About
I’m Christian Leithart, a writer and teacher living in Birmingham, Alabama. I’m not active on social media, but you can read my blog here. Use the button below to share this issue of Time’s Corner, if you so desire. Thanks much for reading.