"Sin" Scene 19: the Finale

Santana, Luis, Faith and Devlin assess where they are and where they’ve come from:  Devlin was a miserable, lost person focused only on wealth and fame, through sacrifice and self-reflection he has found a love bond with someone pure of heart and soul.  Faith looked outside herself for validation and a sense of success in life, she has come to understand that fame, fortune and devotion to outside things are secondary to the importance of believing in yourself.  Santana attempted to get a kind of love revenge and has come to realize that passions are self-created, and the only way to deal with them is through inner strength.  Luis, while maintaining his role as master of literally everything, is intrigued to find he can still be surprised by the machinations of the world he created and runs, and in his own way has demonstrated a sense of “love” in response.

Faith and Devlin wander off together, happy, in love and completely oblivious to the divine battle that has taken place, that they were in the center of in fact.     

Luis suggests, in his usual, resigned way, that he and Santana have been going at it for eons and always will.  Santana points out that, the way the world is going, there may come a time when humans don’t even need “gods” anymore and how would he feel about that?  Luis accuses Santana of stalling and suggests they put their discussion to rest for another day.  Santana fires back that that’s what he always does, and the two of them continue to try to get the last word.  In the end they both compromise by saying “Good night” together and ending another round. 

The finale of “Sin” is another moment that I’d adjust if I ever did it again.  My goal was to wrap things up in a raucous way with a return of all the various character themes from the show.  I found on “Ecstasy” that bringing back the opening and title songs was a really strong way to end that piece—it left audiences happy and tapping their toes, even as they were scratching their heads trying to figure out what, in fact, had just happened in the course of the show.  Everyone forgave us for an unfocused narrative because they just really, really enjoyed the last moment, the song, the characters and the feeling that the show was complete.  It wasn’t an original idea of course, and I was no pro when I came up with it, but it worked amazingly well, night after night. 

I tried to repeat that with “Sin” but it always came off forced to me.  After the serious second half of the show, and after Santana’s powerful final song, it was a jolt to just suddenly stop everything and launch into a high-energy final song, I think.  Faith and Devlin, who were never really the focal point of the show in the first place, have been abandoned by the last songs of the show, and so if you cared about them at all it it was a few songs earlier.  The conflict between Santana and Luis is a strong driving force on paper but the reality is, it’s hard to get invested in “deities” and their trials and tribulations.  Further, there was nothing lost or gained really—their conflict ends in a stalemate and the only conclusion of it is Santana will continue to be who she is…a deity can’t really have a character arc—at least, I’ve never seen it done successfully. 

Then there’s the problem of the music itself…I fully accept that my songs are simple and rather “samey.”  Even I was surprised, however, to find how easy it was to blend all four character themes together for the finale, and even I was getting sort of tired of the same simple four-chord structure.  On top of that, because the songs leading into the finale flowed in an organic way, to have the lights fly up and blast away with the characters all screaming at each other just came off (again, to me) as abrasive, tinny and kind of shrill. 

I do not, however, know of how else you’d end something like this.  My dilemma was self-imposed, as with “Ecstasy” I created a show without a central character (I finally solved that with the redux of “Ecstasy,” another Fringe show called “Ruby” the next year, and it worked like a charm, even if there was less complexity and much less to chew on than in its previous incarnation).  The show had to come to an end; my favorite shows all end with a big bang, and almost always with a reprise of the best moments in the show, and this did work technically—audiences were invigorated by it.  But I never felt it was quite right and even found it a little cringe-inducing.  I’m glad no one—even the reviewers—pointed it out and, like most things, it probably wasn’t nearly as big a deal as I’m making it out to be, I’m too close to it. 

Anyway, each character sang their final thoughts in their personal theme…Faith and Devlin reiterated their love for each other and ran off, Santana and Luis continued their bickering, trying to get the last word before shaking hands and agreeing to take it up again another day.  That part I liked anyway—it was inherent in the original idea I came up with, the idea that mortals may someday grow out of "the gods," even if I probably got it from an old Harryhausen stop-motion animated film ultimately. 

By this point in the show the evening has started to feel long, as I remember—maybe Kay was right and the show needed a further trim, but it felt about right to me…you’re not quite sick of it all yet even as the ending feels inevitable, and welcome.  In all three versions of the finale the singers did a great job of capping the adventures of their individual character with passionate readings of the lyrics.  In 2011 Terri and Sean were great portraying partners in a dispute and, again, reminded me much of well-to-do, quarreling parents who probably love each other more than either of them would admit. 

In 2015 Saudia brought an unexpected sexiness to her character in the whole show but really nailed it in this scene, portraying Santana as a woman who is crying out with her whole body and soul for Luis to share in her passions, but he just won’t budge.  Rich was really good at portraying a sensitive, but immovable, demeanor that was perfect for the role.  Watching the two of them interact was just fun. 

Since it wasn’t one of my favorite numbers and I’m not sure we ever got it quite right, I’m including the demo version of the entire finale song starring Chris Maikish, Kehau Gabriel, Sean Hobday-Smith and Tricia Ridgway, here, to document what it was:  https://youtu.be/eKORfcRzgoA?si=C6hIkk7-C8pB-djn

For the other clips, to record the show properly for posterity I’m just enclosing the final bows.  As I mentioned in one of the first entries about my show, unless you’ve participated in something public that received applause, you can’t really understand what a powerful feeling it is to receive it.  While the applause that happened at the end of my shows was (rightfully) directed mostly at the performers and technicians I certainly embraced a feeling of pride that the shows were my dreams come true and came about because I put in the hard work, some cash and the risk required to put them on. 

I remember opening night of “Ecstasy,” Racquel, the producer of the show, said a lot of very inspirational, wonderful things to me regarding the work I’d done, but the best thing she said, something that has always stuck with me is, “You’ve given people the gift of something to perform in.” 

I don’t know that I’m all that humble, it would just never cross my mind that creating a project would be a gift to anyone—I’d love to think that was the case but a personal artistic project/form of expression can’t help but be driven by ego ultimately I think; “Sin” didn’t exist in the world, I wanted to see it, so I created it.  I hope it made people happy and I’m glad to think those who performed in it got something valuable out of it all. 

Well, more on all that later.  For now, some well-earned bows, first from the 2011 cast:  https://youtu.be/I9kWmnjipNY

Then from the cast of 2015:  https://youtu.be/0DNZsVCUcBI

Next entry:  Some final thoughts, both bitter and sweet…