Event

The Fire in The Wood

Written by Welsh poet Peter Thabit Jones, this play explores the life and legacy of the great sculptor, Edmund Kara, of Big Sur California. In both verse and prose, the characters recount the important life moments and character of this enigmatic artist. Kara designed wardrobe and costumes for both Universal and Paramount Studios and for such greats as Lena Horne and Peggy Lee before he retreated to his coastal studio in Big Sur where he immersed himself in sculpting wood.

The play takes place some time after Karas death. In the early minutes of the play, a surviving friend of the sculptor notes that his home studio where his vitality flourished is slowly decaying and sliding down the cliff into the sea. She sees it as consistent with his Zen way of life - in rhythm with nature.

In the precious days before the house is gone for good, Karas ghost, the main character of the play, returns to assess his life and legacy. In a way he's analyzing his own bones. He remembers fondly the sanctuary of the place he built for himself to create in and the sensuality of his craft carving wood. He acknowledges the myriad forms of fertile nature that had surrounded him in life.

By his own account, his art was about self-discovery. The characters in the play - his longtime friend and Big Sur neighbor, two poets, his ghost, and his younger self all contribute to a simultaneously frank, yet poetic, assessment of the life Mr. Kara led.