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Dearest, please don t condemn me.
With those words, a man named Norman Morrison set out to make a statement, a grand gesture, an extreme act. With his one year old child in tow, he made the ultimate sacrifice to bring attention to the atrocities happening in Vietnam.
That largely forgotten historic act is the inspiration for FIRE IN THE GARDEN, a one man play written by Ken Weitzman. Presented online as a recorded video, the show is available to watch on demand through February 28 from the Warehouse Theatre in Greenville, SC.
The show takes place today, fifty years later, after a young father, played by Aaron Brakefield, reads of Morrison s act. He becomes obsessed, researching, questioning, trying to determine why - and how - a father could set himself on fire while his one year old daughter looked on.
In a highly influential essay called “Two Cultures” published in 1959, author C.P. Snow deplored what he saw as the division between two of the most important areas of knowledge science and the humanities which he believed hindered human progress. The parameters of the debate have changed since then, with a slew of books and essays by scientists and science writers attempting to communicate scientific concepts to the general public. But there’s also widespread skepticism about climate science, vaccinations and a fact-based approach to the coronavirus pandemic indicating that the gap remains.
Heather Beasley, associate producer for the Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company, is creating an ambitious new program that brings local scientists and playwrights together and is intended to increase artists’ understanding of science and perhaps also scientists’ appreciation of the arts. Science Shorts four plays focusing on such diverse topics as the need to understand climate his