
Shaftesbury Avenue, London.

As an educational trip for its students, GSA provided tickets to West End shows, some of which were…Legally Blonde, Priscilla, Lion King and Hair. Since I’ve seen the rest (with the exception of Priscilla, and admittedly, I don’t know what the hell it’s about! Haha!), I opted to see Hair. A bunch of us from our class, and a lot of other students at GSA, braved the rush hour traffic and the mosh pit-like train populace and took the Underground towards Shaftesbury Avenue, where we were to see Hair.

The show was…hair-raising on all counts.

Aside from the electrifyingly energetic cast (which at times, seemed a little bit too high for my non-drug sanity), the show kept everyone positively uncomfortable. You really didn’t know what to expect with such a show. The adlibs were impeccably delivered, even amidst technical difficulties. Add to that, the rapport of the cast with the audience (they kept touching my hair!! And humping audience members too!), kept everyone up, out and about, throughout the almost 3 hour show.

Sure, the blatant show of sex (in all its forms, positions and rhythmic beats) and full frontal nudity by majority of the cast may have turned others off (Then again, I’m sure it would have been otherwise for most hormone-high, sex-starved teens) but the story, buttered up by historical significance and even present applicability, captivated me. War, Freedom, Love, Passion and Death were only a few of the recurring themes of the musical. Stuff of the past, present and future. Stuff we can all and should all be able to relate to.

At one of the shows comedic high points, the hippies were in a frenzy, smoking pot and hallucinating in a kind of religious trance. One of the hippies, thinking herself to be Mary Magdalene, quipped,

‘Oh Jesus, I’m being stoned.’”

Quite Punny. I must say.

The highlight of the night, however, came at curtain call when every single one of the students of GSA went onstage to dance and just rock out with the live band. I found myself jumping, screaming, singing, grinning, arms flailing, with camera and big bag in tow…a little bit surprised with myself albeit enjoying myself and the company of others, quite thoroughly.

At that very moment, a part of me wanted the moment to linger a little longer. I wanted to capture it, bask in it, using every possible sense and super sense I had. I found myself wanting to squeeze it for all it was worth. I wanted the momentary flicker of pure bliss to extend itself into semi-permanence (at least in my head).

Don’t we all wish for that huh? For time to give us a little leeway, for it to be on our side for once, for fleeting moments to endure until we realize it to be all worth the wait…

While I know that not every second of my life will be as hair-raising, tummy-tickling, heart-warming and pure and plain fuck-kind-of-WOW, I hope I remember to enjoy moments like that. I hope I have more moments of letting go and just jumping up and down, off a cliff, off a board, into the water, into mud even, into life and every single opportunity it throws or even shoves at me.

Well then, jump go I or jump I go.