{"id":25353,"date":"2024-07-26T12:47:25","date_gmt":"2024-07-26T16:47:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=25353"},"modified":"2024-07-26T13:10:12","modified_gmt":"2024-07-26T17:10:12","slug":"herons-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2024\/07\/26\/herons-flight\/","title":{"rendered":"In Double Edge\u2019s \u2018Heron\u2019s Flight,\u2019 A Bird Sheds Its Wings On A Transformative Quest For Wisdom"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cHerons are believed to be symbols of good luck and transformation,\u201d Travis Coe, who co-directed \u201cThe Heron\u2019s Flight\u201d<\/a> with Jennifer Johnson at Double Edge Theatre in Ashfield, Massachusetts, says at the beginning of the spectacle. \u201cWalk with us toward transformation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They lead the audience to a pond at dusk surrounded by the sound of flutes, grunts, chittering and moos. A woman in green appears out of the shrubbery and announces, \u201cIt\u2019s midsummer night, you can we whoever you want to be.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a woman with antlers, a man with bull horns, a woman swims in the pond with a ruffled gray tail. And the heron, a woman with big white wings, on a swing suspended over the pond, sheds her wings and splashes into the water\u2014and emerges, as a different woman, seemingly learning to walk as she strides up onto the shore. \u201cIt\u2019s strange to be a human,\u201d the heron-woman says. \u201cWings make much more sense.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\""The
“The Heron\u2019s Flight” by Double Edge Theatre in Ashfield, Massachusetts, July 22, 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The cast leads the audience through the Double Edge\u2019s Farm Center landscape, through the giant mouth of a cyclops into a barn, and after night has fallen, to tables set for an outdoor feast, through gardens, along creeks lit by fires. There\u2019s a centaur and a minotaur and a phoenix, and dancing and caresses and flips and acrobatics. The show was inspired by an actual heron that lives on the property\u2014and midway through the show the real bird glides overhead. Double Edge\u2019s spectacles often create a dreamy hallucinatory surreal fugue state\u2014and here they call upon the magic of a midsummer night\u2019s dream populated by alluring and capricious faerie.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The heron-woman has given up her wings seeking deeper understanding. \u201cIs this feeling of love and loss,\u201d she asks, \u201cwhat it means to be human?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Double Edge Theatre performs \u201cThe Heron\u2019s Flight\u201d<\/a> in previews on July 18 and July 19 at 8 p.m. and performances from July 23  to July 31 at 8 p.m. and Aug. 1 to 11 at 7:30 p.m. The theater says tickets are \u201ccurrently sold out. To join our waitlist, please contact tickets@doubleedgetheatre.org.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, occasional newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting. (All content \u00a9Greg Cook 2024 or the respective creato<\/em>rs.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\""The
“The Heron\u2019s Flight” by Double Edge Theatre in Ashfield, Massachusetts, July 22, 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\""The
“The Heron\u2019s Flight” by Double Edge Theatre in Ashfield, Massachusetts, July 22, 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\""The
“The Heron\u2019s Flight” by Double Edge Theatre in Ashfield, Massachusetts, July 22, 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\""The
“The Heron\u2019s Flight” by Double Edge Theatre in Ashfield, Massachusetts, July 22, 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\""The
“The Heron\u2019s Flight” by Double Edge Theatre in Ashfield, Massachusetts, July 22, 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\""The
“The Heron\u2019s Flight” by Double Edge Theatre in Ashfield, Massachusetts, July 22, 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\""The
“The Heron\u2019s Flight” by Double Edge Theatre in Ashfield, Massachusetts, July 22, 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\""The
“The Heron\u2019s Flight” by Double Edge Theatre in Ashfield, Massachusetts, July 22, 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\""The
“The Heron\u2019s Flight” by Double Edge Theatre in Ashfield, Massachusetts, July 22, 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\""The
“The Heron\u2019s Flight” by Double Edge Theatre in Ashfield, Massachusetts, July 22, 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\""The
“The Heron\u2019s Flight” by Double Edge Theatre in Ashfield, Massachusetts, July 22, 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\""The
“The Heron\u2019s Flight” by Double Edge Theatre in Ashfield, Massachusetts, July 22, 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\""The
“The Heron\u2019s Flight” by Double Edge Theatre in Ashfield, Massachusetts, July 22, 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\""The
“The Heron\u2019s Flight” by Double Edge Theatre in Ashfield, Massachusetts, July 22, 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\""The
“The Heron\u2019s Flight” by Double Edge Theatre in Ashfield, Massachusetts, July 22, 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\""The
“The Heron\u2019s Flight” by Double Edge Theatre in Ashfield, Massachusetts, July 22, 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\""The
“The Heron\u2019s Flight” by Double Edge Theatre in Ashfield, Massachusetts, July 22, 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\""The
“The Heron\u2019s Flight” by Double Edge Theatre in Ashfield, Massachusetts, July 22, 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cHerons are believed to be symbols of good luck and transformation,\u201d Travis Coe, who co-directed \u201cThe Heron\u2019s Flight\u201d with Jennifer Johnson at Double Edge Theatre in Ashfield, Massachusetts, says at the beginning of the spectacle. \u201cWalk with us toward transformation.\u201d They lead the audience to a pond at dusk surrounded by the sound of flutes, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25329,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[109,110],"tags":[465],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25353"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25353"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25364,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25353\/revisions\/25364"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}