Transfiguration in the Heartland

Recently I had the privilege of attending the opening of a new play premiering in St. Louis by a local playwright, The Healing of Joey Padowaski, by Mario Harwell, produced by First Run Theatre. My review of the play will soon appear on the station website of KDHX radio (kdhx.org), but the play elicited much to think about, so I decided to share some reflections with readers of this blog.

The protagonist of the play, Joey Padowaski, the offspring of a Polish-American father and an African-American mother, acquires the gift of healing by laying on of hands following a childhood accident. However, he comes to realize that he is an unhealed healer, with a tragic secret locked inside himself, and struggles to understand the meaning and purpose of his gift. As his introspection deepens, he comes to understand that true healing must be total healing: the heart, soul and mind must be healed and transformed along with the body. Through much of the play he spurns his gift, perhaps because he spurns himself and the things he has done.

The cast includes a motley assortment of seeming misfits, such as a drag queen, a doltish and abusive lughead from Brooklyn and his co-dependent girlfriend, the spirit of Joey's best friend, trapped in limbo, Joey's scheming boss and his mother, who questions whether it is even appropriate to possess and utilize a mystical healing power in the first place. This oddball crew achieves peace and emotional release by a strange osmosis when they witness the healing of a dead man by Joey. When the deceased man returns, he is transformed from the inside out, and views his life on earth as a mission that he so far has failed to carry out.

Through acceptance and understanding of themselves, each of the characters, including Joey, comes to the knowledge that their failures and shortcomings were attempts to avoid the acceptance of their inner greatness and sense of purpose. One character sums it up like this: "I realized that I wasn't afraid of the darkness of my soul....I was afraid of the light."

This play is about wholeness, and how there is no true healing without complete integration of body and spirit. And in an even broader sense, the true healing of one becomes the true healing of all. When we accept who we are and what we are, our innate goodness is released--we are no longer choking ourselves off.

Thanks,
Gary