Archive - Aug 18, 2015
Do You Know the Secret of The Broken Record @jonathanldent #FringeNYC #BlackLivesMatter
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 08/18/2015 - 19:24After exploring “The Universe of Matt Jennings”, Fiona and I went to see “The Broken Record”. As the play started off, the characters felt flat, like they were from a watered down version of a cross between The Banshee of Bainbridge and Zoo Story. Jiva played by Jonathan Louis Dent, who wrote the play, was a homeless man, with signs of schizophrenia. There was a young black college student that gets shot by a white police officer. In a description of the play, I read that the scene keeps getting replayed and I hoped they would do something interesting with it, otherwise it was going to be a fairly dull twenty-first century morality play.
Fortunately, they did do something very interesting. After the actors froze, the personification of the voice in Jiva’s head appeared. Shadow, played by Rebecca S’manga Frank, provided the context, the through line, needed to bring the play alive.
“Do you know the secret of the lotus flower?” she asked. The complexities of Jiva, as well as of the white police officer, came alive through Jiva’s interaction with Shadow.
I won’t tell you the secret of the lotus flower. That is something you need to find for yourself, by coming to see “The Broken Record”. I won’t tell you the secret of the lotus flower, because I don’t want to give anything away, and because, at least for me, and I suspect for most people either acting in, or watching the play, the answer is incomplete. This is not a failure of the play, it is the power of the play.
As long as we need to remind those around us that #BlackLivesMatter, we all need to spend time trying to learn the secret of the lotus flower.
Explore "The Universe of Matt Jennings" @TUMJ1701 #FringeNYC
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 08/18/2015 - 09:38Going to see “The Universe of Matt Jennings” was close to the epitome of the Fringe experience. My daughter and took the train into New York City, took the subway down to Delancey Street, and wandered around, in the sweltering heat to find Venue 4, Spectrum, on the second floor of 121 Ludlow Street. We left extra time in case there were transit delays, difficulties finding the venue, or other unexpected complications. There were none, so we were close to an hour early.
Unlike larger theatres, this venue did not have an air conditioned lobby and we were told to come back fifteen minutes before curtain time. There aren’t a lot of nice little places to sit down with a thirteen year old and wait for a play, so instead, we found a compromise worthy of waiting for the show. We walked around Orchard Street. Fiona did a little window shopping at the stores selling leather jackets and rock band t-shirts, as I captured and hacked portals in the augmented reality game Ingress.
The venue was small. It had the look and feel of somebody’s loft. The walls were covered with books and CDs, from Django Reinhardt to Ulysses. As they took my ticket, I asked for a press kit. The response was something to the effect of, “Hey, that’s a good idea. We should have those. Give me your card and I’ll email you something.” It appeared that the audience was made up mostly of relatives of the actor. This could be heaven or this could be hell, a one person play about being gay in the context of Star Trek.
The play started predictably enough, “Captain’s Log, Stardate …” A young actor sits on a chair shoddily portraying Captain Kirk’s Seat in the original Star Trek. He is reenacting the Kobayashi Maru test, skillfully hopping from the role of Kirk to the roles of Sulu, Uhura, and others. The Kobayashi Maru test comes to the predictable conclusion and then, the real magic starts to happen.
This isn’t just some fun little Star Trek homage. It isn’t just another play about discovering and revealing one’s sexual orientation. It isn’t one of those dreadful autobiographical one person plays by an aspiring actor who merely has a few funny stories about wanting to be an actor as a kid. This is an important play about self-discovery, masterfully done. It is a play for everyone who doesn’t quite fit in, which I suspect applies to almost all of us, in one way or another.
This is what the Fringe should be. This is what theatre should be. Enjoyable and thought provoking.
