Alone in the Crowd
Written By: Romany Reagan on Mon, Mar 10th 2008
Well I'm back in the city, and what better way to celebrate my return to the Capital of Culture than by seeing some thee-a-tah. Last night I had the pleasure of seeing something completely new at the Bushwick Starr (207 Starr St., Brooklyn). I grabbed a glass of red at the homey concession stand and settled in to watch Metro, an original work created and choreographed by Rachel Klein. The subject was a stuck subway train, and the fantasies of the disjointed passengers of reaching out even while externally excluding each other. The juxtaposition of the necessity to ignore and exclude in our crowded urban world versus our intrinsic human need for contact is a constant clash in the city. All of these thoughts are in each passenger's head, thus the whole play was wordless and very physical -- using dance, acrobatics and clowning to tell the story.
These are themes against which you can't help but run up in the city. The show spoke to me. As it did to most of the audience I'm sure, as we live this internal war daily -- yet perhaps could never tease out the underlining reasons why. It is interesting that the urban crush is where people feel most alone. Klein's illustration of this struggle, ironically by means of touch, makes you both laugh at yourself when you identify, yet also secretly wonder why, we are both so violently drawn to and repulsed by the people we touch everyday underground.
After seeing a little too much of myself in the isolated characters on stage, I felt a sudden need to socialize. I sauntered over to the welcoming concession stand to chat with the girls there. I'm actually not exaggerating; the concession stand actually is quite welcoming as the people who run the Bushwick Starr also live there. There are warm Christmas lights strung about, plush couches and little personal touches around their rasquachi establishment that make you want to settle in and, well, chat. So interesting and luscious, no, that a show about impersonal urban exclusion should be set here?
I spoke with Anna and Jessica about what they were serving. The wine was Fontana "Mesta" Tempranillo 2006 (La Mancha, Spain) $10. The Mesta was slightly sweet with rich fruit (it's 92% Tempranillo and 8% Merlot) -- its yumminess and price make it a perfect choice for the Bohemian budgets of both the theatre and their patrons. The origin of this wine was too fitting for words -- a theatre serving wine from La Mancha, the land of Don Quixote and magically-imagined possibilities. So much like the characters from the play, a man lost in his own fantasies as he navigates the tango between them and the world around him. From rustic Spain to NYC, some themes truly are universal.
Warmed by the wine and the hospitality of Anna and Jessica, I went out into the rainy Brooklyn night feeling very cozy about New York indeed. We're all tossed and jostled here, I great human jumble trying to forget about each other as much as we can. We can either let that harden into irrational anger against our fellow man, or we can be like Quixote, and next time we're on a crowded train envision us all engaged in a magically choreographed dance. I think I'll take the latter, thank you Rachel Klein.
Cheers.
