Sympathy: a simple, tender grace of the heart (Topography: The Landscape of My Soul, #3)

Sympathy is a dramedy that takes place during the tech rehearsal of a fringe,alternative theatre production of Euripides' Medea in 1981 in Manhattan.The main characters are the actors and staff of the experimental productionof Euripides' tragedy, Medea. The actors spend a long night dealing with their dreams and personal demons regarding love and death, relationships and sexuality.Two versions of the play, from 1981 and 2005 are included.Excerpt 1:ANGELA: I think we're living in a dark age of thesoul. Radiant freedom, a distant memory. TRUDY: Radiant freedom? Did it ever exist? Radiant freedom: memory or mirage? Seriously, Ange, when and where exactly have human beings enjoyed radiant freedom? (she sighs) Honestly.Excerpt 2:FRED: Love begins in fullness. Overflows sometimes and drowns everyone. Overflows sometimes and everybody swims.Excerpt 3:JEAN: He wanted me to submit to the reign of terror he called being in control. He assumed that the only alternative to him being in control, was for me to be in control, so he interpreted my refusal to accept his control as rebellion with intent to take control. He tried to crush me. I thought I'd have a better chance with you.Excerpt 4:LOUISE: I want a world where I can feel safe and beautiful and loved. An oasis that will sustain me. And my child.TRUDY: I'm tired of trying to transform reality.Excerpt 5:ANGELA: He never loved me. I loved him. It was an ecstatic reality. I was a King's daughter, the granddaughter of the Sun. I never felt any power in myself until I saw him standing there, the sun shining on his brown shoulders and all I could think, all I could want, was to fall inside those shoulders. To be lifted, carried away. He smiled as if he were reading my mind and I was everything he'd ever dreamed. His gestures are burned into my blood. My hopefulness when he kissed me. An untamable hunger. I will do anything for him. He makes no promises.