Magical Realism as Deus ex Machina at Lincoln Center

I've mentioned or  written about "How to Transcend a Happy Marriage," a current play by Sarah Ruhl, in a couple of previous posts, which you can find here and here.  But I want to touch on one more aspect of the piece before moving on.

When Greek playwrights spun out complicated and seemingly unresolvable plots, they would sometimes call upon divine intervention to sort things out. A god would be typically lowered onto the stage  from somewhere above (deus ex machine) and employing super-human powers, bring about a happy ending.

All You Need is Love, or How to Tanscend a Happy Marriage

In 1967, the Beatles released what was arguably their sappiest song: "All You Need Is Love." It became an anthem of the hippie era -- encapsulating the sentiment of the San Francisco Summer of Love -- much the way "We Shall Overcome" became an anthem of the slightly earlier civil rights movement.

The notion that love can conquer all is back, in the form of a play by Sarah Rhul called "How to transcend a happy marriage" that is currently playing in New York at Lincoln Center.

Identity Defined by Sexual Practices

In an earlier post, I talked about how Maggie Nelson, a current darling of intellectual feminism, defines herself by the nature of her sexual practices.

Today I saw "How to transcend a happy marriage" at Lincoln Center in Manhattan, a play by Sarah Ruhl where, among other things, the same theme arises.