Plucking the strings of America’s poetic heart
Q: How did you choose the pieces for the performance?
A: Our aim was to really make something completely new, but with elements taken from the greatest American music and literature of the last 250 years. We start with [Walt] Whitman’s and the Bach cello suite, because these pieces are contemplating life as a whole and reflecting on who we are on this planet. Then we go into James Fenimore Cooper, who describes untouched landscapes in New York. Schubert, in Europe, read Cooper and was a big nature admirer as well, so we put them together. We are touching on a lot of subjects, touching on all the important things about humanity and about our existence — but in an entertaining way.
Q: Bill Murray seems like a surprising guy. Has he ever done anything unexpected on stage?
A: Bill is somebody who never does things the same twice. Although the show is scripted, and we don’t change the pieces we are playing or singing or reading, there is a lot of room to always change your interpretation. Plus, the show itself has an element of surprise. When we start, people are thinking, “What the hell is that?”
Q: It is unusual to have a famous comedian deadpanning poetry alongside a classical chamber trio.
A: We want to surprise people. We have got the comment often that this show is new and people really haven’t seen anything quite like it.
Q: As I understand it, a particularly dramatic moment happens when Bill reads a selection from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, where Huck Finn grapples with his conscience.
A: That’s the most important scene from and maybe the most important scene from American literature in the 19th century. The message is so clear — someone who has an innocent heart, who is doing the right thing, risking his own life helping his friend escape slavery.
Q: What do you hope people take from the performance?
A: I think if you see these pieces and hear these pieces, you really hear a lot of our values — I say “our” because I’m American. I have an American passport now. Americans have always been famous for being very empathetic and helping each other out. When you look at these texts, it’s surprising how relevant they are still today, and maybe they can help us reflect on America and imagine a promising future together. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, whose wedding veil had the wild flowers of all 53 Commonwealth nations embroidered in it.
VI, in 1952, the post-colonial “family of nations” was in its infancy. The Queen’s coronation robe the following year contained emblems of its then just eight members.
The documentaries include the excitement about Harry and Meghan’s first official overseas visit this month, to the Commonwealth nations of Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga. That visit will mark a new beginning in a special relationship that, at 92, Britain’s longest-reigning monarch continues to hand-nurture.
The Queen no longer travels the Commonwealth. Taking her place these past eight years has been Prince Charles, who was this year agreed as the next head of the Commonwealth by its leaders.
But those flowers on Meghan’s wedding dress, and the recent appointment of Prince Harry as Commonwealth Youth Ambassador, give another glimpse of the future.