Catharsis vs. (you guessed it) integration

One of the things I've been thinking about after finishing the draft script for MELISANDE is whether the show has a sufficient moment of –

and here's where I want to write catharsis because that's what theater people are supposed to write, that's the word we're supposed to use –

but I really mean integration.

The moment at which the protagonist reaches one.

In GREAT COMET, for example, the moment comes in "Pierre and Natasha" when Pierre finally speaks:

If I were not myself
But the brightest, handsomest
Best man on earth
And if I were free—
I would get down on my knees this minute
And ask you for your hand
And for your love

Don't make the mistake of thinking that Pierre's not-quite-declaration-of-love is what integrates him. What's going on in this moment is that Natasha has told Pierre that "all is over for her," to which Pierre responds "All over?" and then the music stops – the music, in a through-composed piece, stops – and Pierre tells Natasha that he loves her, by which he means that all is not over for her, and then he understands in that moment that not all is over for him either.

This is what has been bothering Pierre since the beginning of the piece. It is the conflict that drives the entire narrative:

I never thought that I'd end up like this
I used to be better

And when Natasha says the same thing to him, he says it isn't the end.

And that's what he learns.

And that's how he restores his integrity, and everything after that is (literally) harmony.

FUN HOME withholds Alison's integration until the very last moment of the piece, when she accepts both what her father gave her and the fact that she is different from him:

Caption: Every so often there was a rare moment of perfect balance when I soared above him.

As you might remember, the piece begins with Alison going through a box of her father's stuff, (literally) refusing it as she believes he (metaphorically) refused her. But even as she tries, she can't move beyond her father; she's as old now as he was when he died, and so she sings, in the show's opening number:

There’s you
And there’s me
But now I’m the one who’s forty-three
And stuck
I can’t find my way through!
Just like you
Am I just like you?

(This is why the more important part of the final line of the piece is "soared above him.")

But what about MELISANDE? If the moment comes when I think it does –

well, the trouble is that it doesn't.

It is, by the way, the resolution of the conflict between the King and Queen. Melisande and Florizel have their little love story, the Page learns that you can use your mistakes to improve your decision-making, and everyone has a lot of fun with math, but the conflict of the piece has always been intellect vs. intuition, thinking vs. feeling, head vs. heart, whatever you want to call it, and the resolution is that they're actually the same thing.

(They are, by the way.)

The trouble is that I wrote two different resolutions to the King and Queen's story in the same scene (one regarding their relationship to each other, and the other regarding their relationship to the progress of civilization), and I think the more important resolution comes first, and I'm wondering if it's a problem that it doesn't come last.

And yes, you could say that they couldn't resolve the problem with the kingdom until they resolved the problem with each other, and that's fair.

And you can get away with this kind of thing if you want to, certainly DIARY OF A WIMPY KID has the more important resolution (Greg reconnecting with Rowley) before the subsequent resolution (Greg and Rowley overcoming middle school status games).

But it's troubling me, and since it's troubling me it needs to be addressed.

Somehow.

In a way that makes the entire piece –

well, obviously –

integrated.