The Night Art Healed the Broken Hearts
On Saturday, September 3, 2022, The Long Goodbye (a rock opera created, produced and directed by singer-songwriter Emily Rooker) was revealed on the revered stage at The Evergreen Theater in Memphis, Tennessee.
The staging, choreography, light and costume designs were a stunning expression of the human condition and lead us through every emotion we would collectively experience in an intensely honest, vulnerable and gentle warmth.
From the first note until the last, a sold out house was invited to experience loss, grief, healing, love, grace and hopefulness in a shared safe space created by Emily and the entire cast and crew of The Long Goodbye.
The rock opera moved through the entries into Emily’s fourth album of the same name kicking off with a handful of songs whose reflection set the stage for our own meditations of life, younger selves, trauma and joy. Of lessons learned, and yet to be understood.
Consistent with any reflection of past acts, the performance takes us through the burdening weight of guilt, shame and our struggle with self-worth. Gratefully, Emily and the cast move us to a place of tender forgiveness and an invitation to Be Kinder to Ourselves as the first act comes to a close.
Stirring with emotion and soaked with tears, the audience was allowed 20 minutes to rest.
The second act gingerly moves us through universal experiences with death and grief whose consistent presence can’t be shaken, and so instead, it is held dearly and allowed to fully embody the entire space the audience and cast share in that moment. The funeral scene is extraordinarily potent and holds sacred traditions around death and dying.
As we’ll learn later, when the dead and living break free, those traditions allow us to mourn and eventually live with both joy and sorrow intrinsically connected; no smaller than we ever were, and certainly freer.
As the show closes, we are allowed to imagine our own deaths without fear and to celebrate that quite miraculously, we’re all still here.
