“The Portal of Initiation” in Thornhill — Richard Chomko

11 Dec “The Portal of Initiation” in Thornhill — Richard Chomko

TQuest productions wrapped up their final two performances, including the Canadian premiere, of Rudolf Steiner’s first mystery drama, “The Portal of Initiation”, October 27-29 and November 4th in Thornhill. Both performances were sold out in advance.

For many in the troupe, it was the culmination of three years of intense working together to bring Rudolf Steiner’s words to life on stage, to represent the esoteric path of development in dramatic form, with spiritual beings such as Lucifer, Ahriman, nature spirits and soul forces appearing among the characters.

This Canadian premiere of the full “Portal of Initiation” mystery drama drew a broad spectrum of people, some of whom had just recently heard about it from friends, and others who had been lifelong anthroposophists. Lack of knowledge of anthroposophy seemed not to be an obstacle to a meaningful experience of the drama for the newcomers I spoke to.

At the after party, actor Paul Hodgkins said he talked to one woman, who ran into him at intermission and didn’t recognize that he was even in the play. And Susan Richard, who played the lead role of Maria, had someone ask her whether she had been part of the team that cooked the delicious meal. Could that mean that what took place on stage transcended the mere humanity of the actors and that, for the experience of the audience, the actors themselves were overshadowed by the archetypes of the characters they portrayed?

Also at the after party, other actors spoke of being able to perform as they did because the space was held for them by their fellow actors, and about last minute crises that had been dealt with behind the scenes. Several actors spoke of breakthroughs in matters such as being suddenly able to remember their lines, as their work with the drama progressed.

How many more times…

I remember Werner Glas talking about how professional actors felt that a play was not fully there until seventy-some performances after it first opened. But when you think of how this play had been rehearsed in various forms, once a week, for three years, even when you exclude the summers, that’s probably more than a hundred rehearsals. Surely all that creative energy and will, on the part of everyone working together, enchanted or called forth some spiritual presence that was not there before.

My feeling was that the whole production was wrapped in the mood of a “festival of cosmic ordering”. All that devotion and sacrifice over those three years had contributed to building up a kind of spiritual moral substance that called forth a grace from the spirit world, that playgoers could experience quite palpably. I felt this already last year attending the dress rehearsals. The group felt like a true esoteric community, in their working together.

Neighbors and Friends

Already in last year’s partial production I felt that what I was experiencing here in Thornhill with this amateur troupe was deeply affecting and moving. Seeing all four mystery dramas performed a few years earlier in 2014 in Spring Valley had been wonderful, but somehow this Thornhill production touched me in a different way.

At the time I puzzled over why this was. One thought I’ve had since, is that seeing the mystery drama performed by your neighbours and friends brings home to you, even if only subliminally, that your everyday life (with those same neighbors and friends) could also be a mystery drama, in the process of unfolding, especially if you take it up with that attitude.

It would be a failure

In 2014, director Barbara Renold told the audience who came to see all four mystery dramas performed in their entirety for the first time on this continent (in Spring Valley), that if that production didn’t inspire others to take up work with the mystery dramas, she would consider it to have been a failure.

So it was fitting that Barbara was able to be part of the Polarities Conference around the mystery drama performance this past October, and see the fruits of the further work that her 2014 productions had inspired. Of course Barbara had also been part of the effort in Thornhill right from the start when she came up to lead a preparatory conference back in 2015.

Project leader Timothy Nadelle said that after the final performance in November, his and Magi Nadelle’s work with the mystery drama here would be entering into a state of “pralaya” (like the void between planetary incarnations). Magi was the director throughout the three years. Meanwhile Timothy will be starting a new project in anthroposophical prison outreach in Ontario. And perhaps at some future time, someone will again take up the work with the remaining three mystery dramas, here in Canada.

The “Portal of Initiation” project was sponsored by the Anthroposophical Society in Canada and the Thornhill Group.