preamble

In the preamble to Tuesday, Rodgers outlined his goals for the night.

The Hanley moment happened almost in slow motion, but of course, it needed the preamble of a rousing Scotland comeback to set the scene for its full horror.

That day the king also bowed to demands that he ratify the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which became the preamble to the first written constitution of France in 1791.

In an eloquent eulogy bookended by the poetry of Czeslaw Milosz and Langston Hughes, he exhorted Americans to “practice the politics of the preamble to the Constitution” as the “only way” to honor Lewis’ life.

But before the storytelling even starts, the actors in this National Theater production set about making a safe space with a preamble whose clear language and kind tone are not the least bit soppy.