Once Upon a Bridge

IN A BLINK

Three lives intersect for the space of a single breath; their well-planned worlds knocked right off their axes in the space of seconds. But maybe the moment itself doesn’t matter. It’s what comes next that will determine who they truly are when the dust settles. It’s something we all face, in a fashion. The way life changes on a dime. The way our humanity is tested and twisted. And the way it can bounce back if we are able to evolve. To forgive. It’s the kind of play we’re thrilled to fold into the embrace of the Touchstone – compact and thrilling, and exquisitely poetic. Based on a true event that mesmerized London, Once Upon a Bridge is a lyrical and uplifting meditation on the moments that shake us, and the small acts that may help us heal, if we only let them. Runs June 27 - October 7.

Synopsis

Based on a true story, three lives intersect for an instant, and are changed forever. A young woman starting out in a new city is bumped – or is she pushed? – or did she fall? – into the path of an oncoming bus, her life spared by bare inches. One man hustles off, while another risks his job to stay. Structured as a series of flowing monologues, these strangers tell a tale of the distance between our hopes and realities; our perceived futures and unchangeable past; between ourselves and the people around us. A poetic and hopeful meditation about choices, consequences and picking up the pieces when they fall.

Casting subject to change

Once Upon a Bridge Portable Prologue on Apple Podcasts

Once Upon a Bridge Portable Prologue on Spotify

APT's "Once Upon a Bridge" connects three strangers on a London street
By Lindsay Christians, The Cap Times, July 14, 2023

American Players Theatre asks how and why with 'Once Upon a Bridge'
By Gwendolyn Rice, Isthmus, July 20, 2023

Once Upon a Bridge at APT
Video by Hannah Jo Anderson

Director's Note

When I first came across this play, I thought: “A play about a viral video? Ooo boy. Really?”

But then I encountered its poetry; its magic and beauty and hope. It seemed to lift off the page - almost fly. Then, I recognized it for what it was: A Fairy Tale.

In her brilliant collection of essays on modern life, Happily, Sabrina Orah Mark has this to say:

“When we say a story is like a fairy tale, what do we mean? Usually there is an evil stepmother, children on the verge of being eaten, spells, talking animals, forests, three wishes, three paths, three sons, magic eggs, or beans or cakes. Usually there is hunger and a dead mother. Usually there is a witch. We turn to fairy tales not to escape, but to go deeper into a terrain we’ve inherited, the vast and muddy terrain of the human psyche. Fairy tales, like glass coffins, like magic mirrors, give transparency to the reflection of the human gaze…

…Fairy tales are perched on a shaky turret of laws that seem to be both drafted and passed by whimsy and appetite. The citizens of fairy tales have lived under these laws long enough to know the tale they’re in has stitched a y to the end of fair - it’s a weirdly shaped wing that carries fairness away. The word ‘fairy’, from the word ‘fata’ is rooted in fate, but lifted by magic. Here comes the wind.”

Our play has no witches, or spells, or evil step-mothers. We have three characters: three individuals with no names who will lead us through a modern tale of the human psyche and all of its deeply beautiful and heartbreaking flaws. They will search for the truth of this moment teetering atop their own shaky turrets of law. Everyone in this play (like seemingly everyone in our world right now) is seeking fairness. And what’s “fair” to someone is relative. In trying to protect our individual sense of justice, we can get carried away, and in the process, fairness can get carried away too.

There’s also this. In our play, the Bus Driver has the following line:

“Dearest Lord, Help me be the people’s eyes who don’t see me”

What do we miss when we watch these ephemeral moments captured forever in our collective digital lives? What don’t we see? And what is it, as an individual, to really, fully, truly be seen?

Funnily enough, the etymology of the word “Respect” is rooted in “Re-inspecting”: it means, basically, to re-look at, re-observe, see again. And when we watch a viral video, that is kind of literally what we do. We look back at a moment. Often, we do it over and over again. And while sometimes, that can just turn into re-spectating, it can also, hopefully, be a path to respecting. Maybe these captured moments can help us to discover; to observe; re-inspect; seek the truth of that moment. To try to see what we missed the first time. And to maybe see what someone else experienced: the good, the bad, the awful, the beautiful. When we can find the compassion alongside the justice, we can see each other.

And that is magic.

Laura Rook, Director of Once Upon a Bridge