Canterbury Tales (12)

Lig-Lig-Le grew up, learned to walk on his own two feet, to feed on things other than the milk from the mother-body. And by the same measure he became more independent; sometimes he would not obey the big body. Xua-Xua was terrified – it was like telling one’s hands to pray and instead they start to box, or telling one’s legs to sit and they walk away. A rebellion was taking place, led by a small part of her – a small but precious part of her body. And she would look at herself-mother and herself-baby; both of them were she, but one of her was playing tricks, being naughty, disobeying. Li-Peng merely watched them (watching her-big and her-small). He kept his distance, just looking.
One day, Xua-Xua was sleeping. Li-Peng was curious, because he could not understand the relationship between Xua-Xua and her son, and he wanted to try to establish his own relationship with the boy. So when the boy awoke before his mother, Li-Peng attracted his attention, and the two of them went off together. From the start Li-Peng knew that he and the boy were two different bodies: the boy was ‘the other’ and not himself, not Li.
Li-Peng taught Lig-Lig-Le how to hunt and fish, and the boy was happy. When Xua-Xua awoke and looked for her small body and could not find it, she was unhappy. She cried and cried – because she had lost part of herself – and shouted and shouted, hoping her cries would be heard, but Li-Peng and the little boy had gone away.
However, since they belonged to the same horde, a few days later Xua-Xua saw them both, father and child. She wanted to get her baby-body back, but he refused, for he was also happy with his father, who taught him things his mother didn’t know.
Xua-Xua had to accept that the small body, even though it had been born inside her – it was she! – was also somebody else, someone with his own needs and desires. The refusal of Lig-Lig-Le to obey his mother made her aware that they were two, not one; she did not want to stay with Li-Peng, whereas Lig-Lig-Le did – each had made their own choice! Each had an opinion. Each had their own feelings. They were different people, and she had to accept their difference to enable dialogue to become possible!
This recognition forced her to identify herself: who was she? Who was her child? Who was Li-Peng? Where were they? What would happen next time, if her belly swelled again? Did she like Li-Peng as much now as she had done before? Would she try other males, as he had tried other females? Would all males be as predatory as Li-Peng? And what about she herself? Would she stay the same? What would happen tomorrow? Xua-Xua looked for answers by looking at herself.
In this moment, theatre was discovered. The moment when Xua-Xua gave up trying to recover her baby and keep him all for herself, accepted that he was somebody else, and looked at herself, emptied of part of herself. At that moment she was at one and the same time, actor and spectator. She was spect-actor. In discovering theatre, the being became human.
This is theatre – the art of looking at ourselves.