Portraits I

1984! George Orwell's bleak vision portrayed in his famous novel titled 1984, and the world he envisioned therein, is dissolved through the power of comedy. Portraits lays down an imaginative mosaic of the time demonstrating through the creative imagination of the dramatis personae the human spirit remains triumphant. Pathways to romantic enlightenment for the romantic couples, their cross-play and tensions, evolve through meditations-in-form: Architecture, Music, Physics, Dance and the Photograph. Portraits is a meditation through comedy on the timeless experience of men and women falling in love, drawing parallels with the comedic creations of previous eras, referencing the spirit of Much Ado About Nothing and George Meredith's famous opening lines from his novel The Egoist in particular. Portraits Volume One opens against an autumnal tapestry luminous with transformations changing the lives of the dramatis personae. The compelling imagery of their inner meditations is contrasted with the vividly realized natural world in which they are physically, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually immersed. Comedy is the leaven building and finally releasing tensions, whether in politics or romance, and proves to be the most effective and sustainable antidote against the infection of existential despair. Portraits is staged and photographed on the page and the Comic Muse invoked by George Meredith overshadows the reader.