I’d see pictures of her and there was just something about her that I could swear I’ve seen before. And it’s finally come to me.
I’ve seen a number of productions of “Man of La Mancha” (not counting the ones I’ve actually been in). And one year I saw it at Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut. And there’s a line in the show where Cervantes describes his knight as a man with “eyes that burn with the fire of inner vision.” Then when the actor “became” Quixote and began to sing, “I, Don Quixote,” for the first and only time in all the times I’ve seen the show, he did exactly that. He did SOMEthing with his eyes and suddenly there was just this burning intensity in his eyes, the flame of the zealot, the fire of inner vision. And it was incredibly scary (I even heard someone near me mutter, “Whoa”) because in a way that was never done in previous productions, it was driven home to you that this guy was nuts. Just stark-staring bonkers.
That’s why Bachmann looks familiar to me. Hers are eyes that burn with the fire of inner vision, just like that day at Goodspeed when the audience and I were in the presence of a madman, a fanatic, a zealot believing that God has sent him on a quest.
The only difference is, he was acting.
PAD
Originally published September 1, 1995, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1137
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