Review - Massacre (sing to your children)

 I have yet another busy show week ahead (wow, is the end of the season jam-packed this year or what?!), but I wanted to throw down a few thoughts of a show I saw last Friday at Rattlestick, Jose Rivera’s Massacre (sing to your children).  Oh, and I forgot to get a photo of the marquee, but here's the program, and I got a shot of the new Freedom Tower as I was heading downtown...

[spoilers will follow in this review]  Clearly I thought the title would be a metaphor for something, or else this show may not have been at the top of my list of ‘must-see shows.’  J   But, no, no metaphor.  Just massacres.  And although this play is NOT my cup of tea in any way, shape or form, I do grudgingly appreciate what it was trying to do.

The play begins with an assault on all the audience’s senses, when a bloodied body rolls onto the stage, then other bloodied cast members, wearing weird animal masks, come careening onto the stage, with music blaring, lights flashing and much screaming.  It’s loud loud loud and immediately places you at the height of strong emotion.  You see almost orgiastic behavior, though there are some characters who have regret or weak stomachs (yes, we have vomiting into a bucket).  My eyes were closed for quite a stretch of the beginning of the play, but once the actors began to calm down and wash off, I could open my eyes and try to engage.

The seven bloody cast members have apparently killed their neighbor, who was the head of the small town where they all live.  Each cast member speaks to the atrocities committed at the hand of Joe, the gentleman they killed.  I guess we do have a metaphor here, because Joe seems to be a metaphor for a dictator of a small country (at least to me).  But each cast member also seems to be trying to convince themselves that what they did was the right thing.  But was savagely killing a killer really the right thing to do?  They begin to question, reason, then turn on each other, when suddenly there is loud knocking on the door.  Intermission.

It was at this point I thought I needed to leave.  I’m not good with all this violence, and since I had looked at the cast list in the program and knew Joe was going to be a character in the play, I began to think I wouldn’t be able to take a revenge scenario in the second act.  Unfortunately (or fortunately), I was sitting right next to the playwright, so leaving wasn’t an option.

I’m kinda glad I stayed, though, because I do think the second act was worthwhile.  Anatol Yusef, as Joe, was a really powerful actor and character, slithery and cool in an all-white costume and a blood red poppy in his lapel.  Even though in actuality he was outside the door of the room, in the play he’s on the inside – inside all of the characters’ heads and fears.  His dialogue is poetic and vivid.  He tries to tear down all the characters and their reasons for wanting to kill him.  He’s completely lethal.  The plot starts to turn, but it was also at this point that I had a bad feeling:  I began to count how many characters were left to hear their stories told.  For me, that meant the script was getting too long-winded.  Perhaps it was getting overly repetitious for me.  Also, the actors were starting to get more and more over-the-top in their acting, and if that was a stylistic/directorial choice, it didn’t work for me.  A little less, thank you, will really help me in.  But, as my theater-going companion pointed out, perhaps they didn’t want to let me in.  Emotionally engaging isn’t really the raison d’etre for Rattlestick productions.  So maybe if I saw this piece someplace else, we’d get a different approach.

Not that I could see this piece again, though, I don’t think.  It’s just a little too intense for my tastes.  I admired the production for going balls to the wall, and there were some striking images and strikingly poetic language, but ultimately, I’m really a wuss.  I freely admit it.  I just don’t like the stomach-churning anticipation of ‘what are they going to do with that ice pick?!?!'  I did amuse the playwright, though, a couple of times when I screamed and covered my face.  I think he liked my reactions. 

If you like this kind of type of work, you may want to check it out this week, because the playwright, Jose Rivera, is going into the cast for a few performances.  I do enjoy hearing a playwright speak his own words.  I don’t think I’ll be able to make a return visit, though.  Side note:  Jose was very nice to chat with and reassured us that we were outside the ‘splatter zone’ in the second act (our seats were in the fourth row - closer than that, beware).