Possibly over sexual, possibly over violent, possibly uncomfortable - Definitely hilarious, definitely polished and definitely important. A performance that allows the American civil war to be understood through discomfort and learning. It is not a play it is a performance.
The Soho Theatre located just off the bustling and beautiful Oxford Street in the centre of London. I wandered down the road in ore of the beauty of a star filled night in London, little did I know what I was in for. The hustle of strangers prepared me to clear my mind before entering the theatre and it was well needed, any level of immaturity or lack of open mindedness would have made anyone leave the theatre or just end in hysterics, which made me question whether that was the goal of the two creators/performers, Jennifer Kidwell and Scott R. Sheppard.
The choice of doing this production in this certain theatre was sublime it really allowed for a select audience to be in attendance. As I stood at the bar waiting for my nice cold beer I gazed around the bar, neon lights and jazz fill the room. There is a mix of every race, ethnicity and gender however there doesn't seem to be anyone over the age of 30. Surprising as the civil war is a history subject after all. The Soho Theatre is hidden away from the commercial shows such as Hamilton and Wicked and allows for only people who understand and appreciate theatre to be in attendance. This allowed for there to be both strong collective audience responses as well individual responses all very diverse. A mass of respect for theatre was present. Entering the theatre involved stairs to a 2nd floor theatre where we where greeted by a range of dolls from the civil war, interestingly they were all colored and typical of ones you would see clutched by poor slave children. This surprise lead everyone into a false sense of security of believing this was a historical play meant to shock the audience, it wasn't historical but it shocked! On entering the theatre Titanic - My heart will go on (Cèline Dion) a song generally associated with sadness and the tragic story of the titanic was playing, however due to how out of place it seemed, there was something rather funny about it, immediately bringing everyone off guard. I spotted earlier on that there were envelopes underneath everyone's seats small brown ones usually linked with important documents. I was curious at why they were there and wanted to look inside however because no one else had seemed to spot them I left it and waited and got comfortable in my seat. The theatre was a Proscenium arch stage and rose up high thus leaving the audience close to the actors, this intimacy was very much intentional which became apparent later on in the show. As the buzz grew to a fever pitch the show began, and God no one expected what we where about to witness.
The piece began as expected, a serious scenario in the period of the Civil war, a black woman running away to hide and eat her apple, this was acted brilliantly and was set fantastically with the use of silence being sublime. The slaves desperation was palpable and when she bit into the apple everyone's mouth watered. Fear set in when offstage was a shout of a males voice, aggressively asking whether anyone was 'in the barn' and that he 'didn't want to hurt anyone tonight', the average blood pressure in the auditorium rises as she is discovered yet is quickly diffused as we learn to discover he is a Quaker and there to assist in the slaves escape to Canada, in their search of freedom. There was a sudden jump into the modern times where the two actors now became teachers in a school hosting some sort of assembly and the audience where the students, furthermore audience participation and reaction was expected and provoked, there was undeniably no 4th wall. This idea was immediately taken by the audience in a shock and unexpected way, I had a large sympathy for everyone in the front row. The involvement of the audience was interesting as it added a level of education, it allowed that audience to become pupils not just spectators and thus enabled us to learn from the performance that was being put on. This idea of learning was amplified by the use of comedy to diminish the horror of the civil war and allowed for the information to be absorbed far eerier then if it where burdening. The immediate idea of relationship between the two teacher characters, Stuart and Caroline, was very prominent from the off, there was a deep yet disturbing romance blooming between them yet due to the discreet element of darkness it was unsettling, however this idea was relieved momentarily by a very well constructed comedic dance routine, almost as if it was a cutaway imagination sequence which was then broken by the realization us the audience/students where watching. The piece has this underlying game of called the Underground Railroad Game, this was a fictional game created by the two performers in the roles of the teachers, it pitches the students as either a US soldier hunting for the runaway slaves or a Freedom fighter aiming to help the Slaves escape, this is where the paper envelopes came in, inside each was a little toy soldier and depending on the color soldier you got would depend on what side you where put on, army or freedom fighters. In my opinion yes its a fun and ingenious way of assigning the so called teams however it is slightly underwhelming and that it also came rather early in the piece.
After the opening sequence of events the next notable moment for me was when the main blue curtain closed and out from the auditorium entrance came Stuart. The surprise that he was able to run around from backstage to back of auditorium so fast was probably the most impressive thing I saw all night, I am kidding. The teacher persona was still there and he then adopted a comedic lecturer routine talking about the Civil War. This lead into a interesting feature; Stuart got the whole audience to close out eyes and imagine a plantation in the old south of America, I expect something pre Street Car Named Desire period, and that we need to imagine us entering a barn and hearing a beautiful singing voice, here we a stunned by a huge black woman wearing old clothes and obviously wearing a contraption to make her bottom look huge, this follows the stereotypical idea of African American woman having huge bums. This scene is where we find the boarder of people and the question of whether the idea and use of sex itself is taken too far. The interesting role reversal of having Stuart preyed on by Annabelle (the singing black woman with a huge backside) is key as it shows the real power struggle between both race and genders. We see Stuart being seduced to conduct sexual acts on Annabelle and we see him sucking on her nipples fully then very suggestively he goes underneath her dress and conducts oral sex on her, this is followed by a very extravagant and aggressive orgasm by Annabelle. In a whole the piece went from 0 to 100 in a few seconds. The continuous double entendre and sexual hints it should have been expected that there would be content such as this however not at this extent. There really was a interesting take on the female gaze where it wasn't necessarily the action visual aspects causing the gaze but more the spoken erotic fantasia which made men feel uncomfortable and woman aroused. The comedic relief which followed was a breath of fresh air all of a sudden. They did this by converting the dress Annabelle was wearing and that Stuart was under onto a tent, and having there shadows cast onto the entrance, suddenly the mix of teacher and slave (modern and history) turned into the two teachers continuing on with the original story which took place at the beginning of the play. This light relief was needed, the shock of the extreme sexual seduction and nudity was striking but left somewhat of a bad taste in the mouth, not from a artistic standpoint but from a discomfort position. The tension of the two Teachers/Lovers hits fever pitch and is taken to a whole new level in the next section. This tension is both there to support the narrative in order to maintain the romantic idea flowing through the piece
'Nigger Lover' scribbled over a now very unimportant sign. 'Nigger Lover' words which both contradict each other but also support each other, a paradox of a statement. This sign is held prominent and high to the audience and in silence, like someone had vandalized something in your school and they were announcing it to the assemble, which ended up being the route they took, but it was done to make a statement about the power of the word nigga and the tear that it can still cause today in some societies when you are a mixed race couple. This is probably the beginning of the climax of the piece it causes a steam roller of events leading up to a dominatrix scenario over Stuart who then snaps and ends up making himself orgasm over the thought of punishment and the statement Nigger Slave. All in all to a immature and unopened mind this would be extremely shocking and actually very off putting. The role reversal of have a female dominatrix who was black dominating a white male was interesting as it gave a spin on the idea of the slave control and the horrendous acts that took place, furthermore the sexual acts could be seen as mocking slavery as he is a white man, in addition to this he was spanked with a ruler and made to repeat Nigger Lover in ridiculous voices, this was both unsettling and comedic, as the voices he was doing were lighthearted and funny yet the the contents of what was being said and the actions where shocking. The full frontal nudity by Stuart allowed us to see him to his bare minimum, his testicles where mocked and so was his ass, he was stripped and humiliated, resembling a large proportion of the humiliation slaves faces. Removing from the performance for one second, a huge respect to the very cleverly type cast cast who devised the piece and challenged the boundaries of Artaud and Brecht to create this piece. Anyway the climax of the piece was a literaly climax for Stuart which was slightly ironic, by this stage he has snapped and start deliriously masturbating until orgasm which snaps him back into reality. The following silence is breathtaking and as fragile as thin glass. It was held so brilliantly with Caroline shaking in shock of Stuart and her actions. They slightly move around the stage collecting there things and getting redressed ending with the question 'was that what we wanted?'. A profound question which extends to the History of slavery. The ending of the piece was a relief and a well needed one, the two teachers announced the winners of the Underground railroad game, I believe the confederate military won. It was done as if it was a sports day and they where announcing which school house won. It was a relief but a very uncomfortable one as we had just seen two teachers commit some quite pornographic content and immediately snap into this gusto celebration, making jokes and almost assigning the atmosphere. The show was rounded off with two puppets representing the two original characters of the slave trying to escape and the Quaker who was helping her, it showed a adorable childlike presentation of a goodbye and good luck as the slave attempted to complete the final part of her journey. It was almost touching the entire diminishing of what was just seen and to be struck with these two fairly adorable puppets made everything we had just seem meaningful. A very clever ending.
Now I have discussed my thoughts through the piece and displayed the reactions during the show questions where left with me as I walked back along Oxford street, it seemed uncannily warmer and no one seemed to want to make eye contact with each other or anyone as they left the theatre, a few people stayed for a drink out of the need for relief. I had these questions:
What was the intertwined meaning of the separate sections and periods of the piece?
What does the piece achieve?
Why?
Was it taken to far?
I asked myself these and I feel that the only what to answer them is through a subjective personal view as this piece isolates each individual and puts them as a collective.
What was the intertwined meaning of the seporate sections and periods of the piece?
This question just sprung to me as I was debating the possible intersections of the piece. I believe the isolation of having a important period narrative alongside a strong modern adaptation of the civil war conflict with hints of the modern American race conflict allowed for a few things. Firstly it showed us the possible hope of a escape for slaves through the Underground railroad with the assistance of the Quakers however this was intertwined with fear and danger due to the large amounts of bounty hunters who would look for these slaves. Secondarily the modern life of being a student learning a passive and rather poor representation of how the civil war was like was demonstrated, it allowed a perspective of actually the importance of learning the depth of history or a subject and not just teaching the surface of important subjects such as this. Next is the representation of the sex, it showed the current ideas of stereotypes that black woman hold, being dominatrix and almost predatorial over the weak 'white boys', in addition to this is flipped the cliché roles of men being the sexually hungry gender and the ones with power which caused a questioning of how people perceive sex and race and their relation, furthermore it showed the idea of hidden lives of tormented people in this case two teachers who are trying to begin a mixed race relationship, finally I believe it is a demonstration of the violence the civil war, the general shocking nature in which the sexual acts where carried out on stage was striking and represented the extent some slaves where forced to work and also how terrible the scenario was for them. Finally I believe it showed the relationships that suffered due to racial separation and taboo, the love between the two teachers was driven to the extent it was because of the fact it was a mixed race relationship and that was frowned upon in that era, it lead to the disturbing clash between the two lovers, almost like a pornographic Romeo and Juliet.
What does the piece achieve?
I believe that this is a question that should be asked after MOST performances. This piece had the goal of shock and learning through perspective. In order to greatly appreciate the show you had to dive deep into the meaning of each scene. I don't know fully how to answer this question but what I have got so far is that, I have learnt more about the terrible acts of the civil war in this show then I have through my full time of education.
Why?
Well, why not? Why not the sex? Why not the comedy? Why not the participation of the audience? This piece was constructed with 'whys' from the audience. It caused everyone to question everything and thus gave a great depth in learning and enjoyment of the piece. Whether the enjoyment was slightly sadistic or not...
Was it taken to far?
This was my immediate first question after the piece was finished. Was the whole shock factor taken to far for this individual piece, my immediate response was, yes, way to far. However after a 24hr period of thinking I can well and truly say I don't think it was. Brecht would have been proud. The purpose of the piece was almost shock therapy and to awaken the audience to the Civil war and the conflict within race. Yes it was far but was is far when you have Artaud to contend with.
Final Thoughts
I believe this piece is important, the action of shock learning is never seen enough in theatre and is a key example of how theatre can teach beyond any lecture. The inspiration for me to create theatre which is abnormal and shocking, which runs parallel with the Theatre of Cruelty but then to develop that into a educational experience is fascinating and The Underground Railroad Game is the perfect place to start.
Good review. Makes me want to see it.