BEYOND
"It means other things exist doesn't it?"
Imagine yourself in the most beautiful place in the world. The grass is green, the trees are laden with fruit, fresh water crashed down the waterfall and then flows along the river keeping the land lush and verdant. Imagine the garden is all you know, all you've ever known, how long before you begin to wonder 'what's beyond the waterfall?'
Stephen Schwartz introduces the whole concept of a wider world through a single word: Beyond. The word itself presupposes that there is more than what we, or in the case of the show Eve, currently experience. Eve explores the word in her song 'The Spark of Creation'. Are we led to believe that it is inevitable that we will question what lies beyond? Is it part of human nature or are only some destined to feel this way. The theme is taken up again by Cain, Japheth and Yonah; all of them want to break away from the life that has been moulded for them by their parents.
Stephen suggests that this desire for exploration is a tiny remnant of the creative fire used to 'breathe life into the mud', a deposit of the Father's creativity left in mankind to use or reject. The book of Genesis tells us that we are created in the image of God, we are therefore created creative. If that is so does Father set himself up for failure by planting a 'spark' in Eve. Adam chooses not to allow the spark to burn away at him and push him to new discoveries, he is content with his lot. We can see from the show that the down-side of this is an inability to make clear decisions. Both Adam and Abel and then Noah in Act 2 , sing ' Oh [Father/Cain] please don't make me choose, either way it more than I can bear to loose...' Is this indecision the alternate outworking of the 'Spark of Creation'
The question comes full circle in 'The Hardest Part of Love' when both Noah and Father realise that the must 'let go' of their children and it is only in allowing them to go beyond that they will return for you to : 'You cannot close an acorn once the oak begins to grow'. Free Will brings both problems and their solutions.
Why not consider the following questions in light of the above:
Cain says that we don't grow if we don't go
beyond, is it right to challenge accepted boundaries?
Can you think of examples of innovation that came about by challenging the
accepted view of life?
What happens to creativity when it faces oppression, eg Adam's attitude towards
Eve moving 'beyond'?
If we have freewill was the expulsion from
Eden inevitable?
If the spark is inherent in all of us what makes us react differently?
Is the spark a defect or a necessary component for human existence?
Why not post your answers to us below and we will feature them on the site soon.