ALEXIA SEXTOU

The Museum of Comedy & Tragedy

They took us to a museum.

Here are the jars of uncontrolled laughter, they said. Proceed with caution, they said. Do not touch the handle of that door, they said, the room is off limits. The dusty label read ‘dressing room’, had two balloons blotted on either side with red paint. They said, ‘The minds of Aristophanes and Euripides echo in these halls. Hear their lonely cries ringing in your ears.’

For hours they spoke, showed us the bottled tears and melting masks.

No smoking, no eating, no leaning, no more … ‘Please stay in your double files,’ they said. ‘Keep walking, do not stop, please follow the guided lines on either side of the path.’

They said to us, ‘From this point onwards photographs are not permitted.’ Asked us to turn off any mobile devices.