How do you measure...

…the value of value?

(Links to picture source)

The award-winning musical Broadway show (and later-made movie), RENT, greatly depends on the concept of value to portray its story and set its theme. RENT contains a deeply moving storyline by touching on sensitive and taboo subjects such as AIDS, gay relationships and drug addiction. With such powerful subjects, the role that value – the amounts of lightness and darkness – plays in the performance/movie are essential to highlighting RENT’s thematic moments. For example, in the opening scene, the actors/actresses are situated in a line on a darkened stage, with each character illuminated in his/her own individual ray of spotlight. It is during this scene when the song, “Seasons of Love” is sung, and the question, “How do you measure, a year in a life?” is raised.

The value contrast in this particular scene stirs up a sense of sincere humanity – with all focus and emphasis placed on the characters who sing about how life is fragile and how a person is never guaranteed to live through another day. The scene is especially powerfully moving when there is a blackout – when all lights are extinguished onstage – at the end of the song.