Robert Markus and company (photo by Michael Cooper)
Tastes of Reality
The spectacle of Tommy is mind-blowing, but at what cost?
by Stuart Munro
@StuartMunroTO
As the curtain came down on Tommy last night, the audience around me was jumping to their feet, screaming and cheering – a testament to the fact that they had had an amazing evening. As for me? Well. I was more confused than anything. Sure, I’d understood the (thin) plot. Yes, I’d enjoyed the music, the dancing, and several of the performances. But whatever it was that’d caused everyone around me to leap to their feet had been lost on me. If Tommy had a broader lesson to impart, I’d missed it completely.
Written by Pete Townshend and Des McAnuff, the show (often styled The Who’s Tommy), relates the story of Tommy who, after witnessing a murder via a mirror, is told by his parents, “You didn't hear it, you didn't see it, you won't say nothing to no one ever in your life.” And so Tommy becomes “deaf, dumb and blind,” seemingly unaffected by anything and everything – until he’s placed in front of a pinball machine by his cousin. Suddenly, Tommy is a wunderkind and a local hero. Over the next ten years, Tommy amasses a huge following, before his hearing, speech, and vision return to him.
