“Here in the light of
this unkind familiar now
Every gesture is clear
and cold for us
Even yesterday's growing
old for us
Everything's changed
somehow.”—English playwright, actor, and songwriter Sir Noel Coward
(1899-1973), “Then,” from The Noel Coward Reader, edited by Barry
Day (2010)
When Sir Noel Coward
wrote these lyrics for the one-act “musical fantasy” “Shadow Play,” as part of
his 1936 play cycle Tonight at 8.30, he conceived of a duet
between husband and wife, about the initial love in their now-collapsing
marriage. Reading the lyrics now, though, I can’t help reinterpreting them in
light of COVID-19.
Everything has indeed “changed
somehow” now. The longer the crisis lasts, the less likely that any remnants of
our past assumptions or way of life will remain. Yesterday has only just passed, but it will feel like a millennium ago before all this is over.
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