BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY : A SONG
To the tune of “I Want to Break Free”…
With a chorus line from A Streetcar Named Desire
I have always depended on the kindness of strangers
Renaming oneself
Shaping one’s life into a design of one’s own making.
Gender and identity.
A sense of belonging within elected families:
A band, and a public.
The transformative power of the stage experience,
And of the experience on stage.
I have always depended on the kindness of strangers
The carefully crafted artistic persona,
The mesmerizing performer-singer
Reinventing himself for each performance,
And each public.
The stage as place, and space for the magic to intrude on the prosaic,
A creative crucible of tamed hauntings,
A site for possibility to deliver Life.
I have always depended on the kindness of strangers
Each show a declaration of love and independence,
A renewed call to reach out and be accepted.
The interactive energy, dynamic, and dialectic.
The shared pleasure of bald and uncanny music.
Yet, the unavoidable leave-taking.
The reconciliation with the estranged father,
And the self, damaged or healed.
I have always depended on the kindness of strangers
“I have always relied on the kindness of strangers”, says Blanche:
Streetcars and desires,
Loss and incongruity.
And, sometimes, so quickly, Desire beyond Death.
Coming to terms with one’s fate and mortality,
And rocking into the future of eternity
With the perfect song, and love.
I have always depended on the kindness of strangers
Marie Lienard-Yeterian