When the Opening Ceremonies of the 2012 Olympics began, I was anticipating something along the lines of the show at Beijing, the digital floor and screens, the synchronicity of the performers, glitz and glam.
What’s with all the lawns? I wondered as Danny Boyle’s “Pandemonium” opened. What transpired was quintessential storytelling.
Based on Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” Boyle orchestrated for over 40 million viewers a creation story of sorts–of hell.
Boyle told his performers “you are creating Hell”. But he also emphasised that the Industrial Revolution was a key moment in history, giving birth to democratic movements, such as that of the Suffragettes and the demand for universal health care.
He told them: “It was monstrous but it changed lives. People, including myself, can read and write thanks to it. The workers of the Industrial Revolution built the cities that are now the settings for every Games.”
I admit I loved it — from the cigar-smoking men in top hats to the sledge-wielding ironworkers in the mutant masks — especially because it did not hide from us the ugliness of our transformation. (Well, until we got to Daniel Craig and the Queen, at which point we put our rose-colored sunglasses back on.)
And based on the research I’ve been doing for my book, I’m with Boyle on the Industrial Revolution being key. It has changed everything. Without electricity, without gasoline, without our machines and technology, we would not have the slightest idea how to survive.
In the spirit of storytelling irony, I could not help but notice throughout “Pandemonium” the sense of total control — of the 1,000 actors, the sets, technical effects and timing — the opposite of what has been happening in the 21st century, the ever-expanding chaos as we humans propel ourselves blindly toward self-destruction.
do they only stand
By ignorance, is that their happy state,
The proof of their obedience and their faith?— John Milton, “Paradise Lost”