'There is a Happiness That Morning Is' poster
Bernard and Ellen are two professors at a small rural college who teach the poetry of William Blake and love their work. Literally. One night, while they recite his romantic prose to each other on the campus grounds, they get caught up in the heat of the moment. Passionate lovemaking ensues. In public. In front of the entire campus; students, their cellphones and one very angry dean.
So begins There is a Happiness That Morning Is by Mickle Maher, which follows the morning—and afternoon—after the previous night’s “event,” or as Bernard puts it so poetically: “a public showing of our dew-dipped thighs.” For the two overly passionate academics, they must repent for their “crime of passion” publicly. Otherwise, they lose they jobs. But to do so, would invalidate the works of Blake they teach (Songs of Innocence and Experience) as well as their own personal relationship.
This 90-minute (no intermission) comedy is written in rhyming couplets and pentameter, an ode to Blake himself, the most famous poet of the Romantic era. And if that all sounds too academically stuffy and dry, the two very fine actors—Cassandra Bissell (Ellen) and Neal Brookshire (Bernard)—Keep us otherwise engaged and entertained, captivating the audience throughout with their remarkable performances.
While the first half of Morning shows us the two separate perspectives of their “splendor in the grass” in their classroom, the storyline really picks up when they finally come face to face the next day in said shared classroom. Director Mary Macdonald Kerr has filled this space with a rapacious energy and fierceness between the two for Blake’s words and their meaning that it elevates the storyline above some of the more surreal, absurd twist and turns that await us.
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And no spoilers here: the surprises really do surprise and, at times, strain the credulity of Morning. But as we are reminded: “poems and life are made up of surprise.” And there are plenty surprises afoot here. But as Ellen points out early on, “love makes all the difference. Just because.” No further explanation needed.
There is a Happiness That Morning Is runs through March 19 at Next Act Theatre, 255 S. Water St. This production contains strong language and sexual content. For more information, call: 414-278-0765 or visit www.nextact.org.
