This archive report was first published on 29 August 2019.
On a sweltering August afternoon in 2019, a performance of 'Sea Wall/A Life' at the Hudson Theatre was about to begin. The usher's polite instruction to turn off our cellphones was a familiar ritual, but his next words left a lasting impression: 'We don't want an Amber Alert to intrude.'
At the time, it seemed like an odd request, but it was also a reflection of the anxiety that had gripped the city just days before. A backfiring motorcycle had caused a panic in Times Square, and a flash-flood warning had disrupted shows at the theatre. Was this just the Hudson staff taking extra precautions, or was something more sinister at play?
As the play progressed, the question lingered. 'Sea Wall/A Life' is an unconventional production, with actors already on stage before the performance begins. A recorded reminder to turn off phones would have disrupted the atmosphere, but was the usher's request a clever ruse to keep the audience engaged?
Or was it something more? The more I thought about it, the more tangled I got. I trusted nothing, and underneath the skepticism, a nagging sense remained: that my incertitude was a metastasis of our jittery, gaslit world, where baseline reality is increasingly in dispute.
