#DAVE MALLOY PUT THE WHOLE THING PROFESSIONALLY RECORDED ON YT FOR FREEEREE

[iimr3]

also the endless parallels!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! specifically:

like midnight is the conclusion to me Usher Pt. 3 is the emotional climax of the story and in that you have one my fav moments: Roxie "leap[ing] upon her mother / and her sister and her daughter and her lover / with the rage of four generations." its the first time i think where we really see living incarnations of any of the ghosts realize who they are– and it makes sense as Roxie is (and always has; see Family Meeting) occupying a grey space between life and the afterlife.

and in Midnight, we see a very similar line when Gelsey/Pearl talks to Brittain/Rose:

P: Are you remembering now? Coming back to you?

R: I think so. Who all am I?

P: Oh, Rose. You're my sister, and you're my lover, and you're my child, and you're my best friend. And Rose, don't you recognize me? It's me. It's me, your little girl.

Just like. the fact that the first line occurs as Rose-as-Roxie kills Pearl-as-Lady Usher, which is an echo of Rose Red's murder of Pearl White & The Photographer's murder-by-inaction of The Victim & Rose's murder of the Soldier. And then the second line is said with such tenderness. Said from the murder victim to her murderer– who she names as anything but. When Roxie Remembered it drove her to violence. But for Pearl she remembers the love? Throughout each doomed lifetime? The way Scheherazade loves Danyazade. The way The Victim smiles for the Photographer and remembers someone holding a teddy bear. The way the camerashop owner gives The Photographer the phone number of The Driver, so that they get married and have twin sisters.

I think GQ is certainly painted through Rose's perspective and so it's easy to see their relationship as primarily hostile. But from the various Pearl incarnations it seems that to her their relationship is filled with grief and the desire for love. And Rose's own desire for revenge leads her to hurt herself as Roxie and Starchild. Like it's not that Rose is just evil and Pearl is the perfect victim; I think you can read it that just as Rose is willing to live lifetime after lifetime to hurt her sister back, Pearl is willing to suffer lifetime after lifetime to make it up to her sister. is anyone listening

ghost quartet is just such an amazing show 2 me it's genuinely the media that's had the biggest influence on me as a person. like i often go into explaining it by joking abt how complicated and hard to follow the plot can be but actually it's so!!!! fucking good!!!!!! because it's not about getting from point A to point B. i don't know is an introduction to the act of telling the story, wind & rain is the finale, but the actual plot ITSELF is timeless. as in it literally exists outside of time. the way that they engage in the themes of identity and being alive. the way they blur the identity of the actors and the characters. yes that is scheherazade from 1001 arabian nights but she's also a reincarnated salt collector and she's not talking to the character of Shah Zaman or even the bear shes talking to and about Real Life Man Dave Malloy who is playing the piano onstage. it's just so