JCS: Getting into Character (part 2) -- The Ancient Eye for the Modern Guy

As a DC native, I watch DC-based TV shows with a jaundiced eye.  When the NCIS cops drive from Arlington to Norfolk in less than an hour, I know we are dealing with writers who’ve never bothered to visit the places in their story.  What, the writers couldn’t be bothered to check a map?  Ever heard of “Google”?  And even small errant details that only locals would notice can be disconcerting.  When a character is driving somewhere on “the 95”, I have a pretty good idea the writer is from California, where the article precedes the highway number, rather than from the East Coast, where it never does.

 

Some of the most irritating aspects of dramatic portrayals of real people and events from the past are the inevitable inaccuracies we meet on stage and screen.  Obviously, with our “based on real events” experiences from Hollywood, we accept that writers take some liberties with the actual story.  We know, for instance, that the historical PT Barnum did not resemble Hugh Jackman and probably could not manage Jackman’s vocal range.  Suspension of disbelief comes with the territory.  Moreover, the intentional anachronisms often make for better entertainment (so do the accidental ones, but for different reasons).  

 

Take our JCS as an example; Rice and Weber were not aiming for “by the book” realism.  It’s a rock opera, for crying out loud, which seeks to tell the story from the point of view of the man many consider to be the primary villain, Judas Iscariot.  As a stage piece, it is clearly not just taking some poetic license. Instead, Rice and Weber’s show is seizing that poetic license by its short hairs, dragging it kicking and screaming into the open, and pummeling it mercilessly-but-cleverly, aided and abetted by the interpreters who stage the show.  This becomes clear in both small and big ways in the story.  Suspension of disbelief, indeed. 

 

Rolling on up to the inaccuracies and anachronisms, while giving them the nod and a wink the authors intend, does not make them any less inaccurate or anachronistic.  And while the underlying story – the story behind the story, as it were -- still goes faithfully forward, some of the meaning might get lost in the jarring clang of of modernisms.  This series will try to muffle some of that noise, not to cancel it, but perhaps to round out your understanding of just who all these people are.

 

So, if you’re game, buckle up for the ride.  We are going to explore the strange and mysterious world in which our story is set.  Hopefully, some of these details make their way into your character’s formation.  But even if they don’t, they will (perhaps) open your eyes to some details you might have been missing in the familiar tale you have always been told.