Who’s There

“Who’s there?”

Each of us in the audience is a who. .

We all hear Barnardo/the person pretending to be Barnardo ask: Who’s there?

Any of us could answer, but we do not.

Why not? What’s wrong with us, Blue, that we do not answer a question posed our way.

You will rightly say that we are at the theater and that at a theater the actors‐‐the players‐‐are in one world, the audience in another. “That’s how theater works, Mr. Ted.”

True. While the player pretends to be Barnardo the sentry, the people in the audience pretend not to be here or “there” for the actors.

Up there they will pretend to be people they are not.

Down here we will pretend not to be.

*

Both the players, who are pretending to be other people and the audience (each of us a who) that pretends not to be “there” pretend this divide exists.

Though no one can see it, it is “there” between us.

Though it gives voice to people like Barnardo (people who are not) and though our voice would go right through it, it keeps us quiet.

A divide that is not there is
there.

We put it there, where it is not, because we pretend.

Why I prefer “divide” over “wall” will reappear later, I feel sure, though as I write this Blue, I cannot be sure when. I will say here that you might think of Hamlet the play pretending that it is not breaking through this divide. After all the first thing is pretends to do is see if any of us will not answer a question we are pretending not to hear.)