|
Pulse of the Twin Cities Login |
|
If you do not have an account yet
Create One.
|
|
|
Twin Town High (vol. 8) |
|
|
|
|
NYC trip a great excuse to check out political theater
Wednesday 30 May @ 13:05:17 |
 
by POLLY MANN
Three of us from Minneapolis--antiwar activists all--were in New York City for a week; a class reunion provided the excuse for the trip. Each evening we went to the theater. We saw one Broadway production–“Spamalot,” the musical version of Monty Python’s “Knights of the Round Table,” a wonderful choice with knights galloping across the stage to the rhythm of clattering coconuts; this helped somewhat dispel the melancholy produced by the previous night’s viewing of “The Brig,” done by The Living Theatre.
I’d read about the The Living Theatre during the Vietnam War and had some idea that we’d be seeing a show that, most likely, could only be seen in New York: “The Brig.” The theater is a basement on the Lower East Side and the audience favored baseball caps, tattoos, calf-length leotards and dreadlocks. For a small, and no doubt underfunded, production, it had a large cast of 17 extremely talented actors, which produced an audience who could only be described as rapt.
The Living Theatre, the oldest experimental theater group in the U.S. founded in 1947 by Julian Beck, now deceased, and Judith Malina was among the first in the U.S. to produce the work of playwrights Bertolt Brecht and Jean Cocteau and poets T.S. Eliot and Gertrude Stein. Based in a variety of small New York locations, which were frequently closed due to financial problems or conflicts with city authorities, they helped to originate off-Broadway as a significant force in U.S. theater.
The first production of “The Brig” was in 1963, but its relevance is timeless. While the setting is a U.S. Marines prison overseas, it could have been Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo, minus the extreme torture that exists in those places. The physical violence of the brig is mostly expressed through the guards’ unexpected hard, gut-wrenching jabs. What is overpowering is the repression, the control exerted over the lives of the inmates. White painted stripes define the areas in which the prisoners are confined. When a prisoner wishes to step outside the allotted space, he must seek permission from the guard. The prisoners never walk, they trot. They are given a time in which they may write letters, go to the bathroom or walk outside. On the other hand, the guards can change the schedule at any time with no given reason. The guards call prisoners “beetles,” and a variety of other derogatory terms.
It would be good if this show could be taken on tour to all the major cities of the United States. However, I’m not sure that people are ready to experience, even in this totally vicarious way, just what their tax dollars are paying for. Neither am I convinced that the government has abolished the use of torture. Nor have I read anywhere that the government is abiding by the rules governing the treatment of prisoners as provided by the Geneva Conventions.
|
|
 |
|
|
Comments -
Post Comment |
|
The comments are owned by the poster. We are not responsible for its content.
NO comments yet! Be the first!
|
|
|
