#bcp2016

I didn’t get it. After watching their show at WGI western championships, I didn’t know what to think at all. A stark contrast from the previous group’s more candid production, hands and their many different uses, Broken City’s was vastly more obscure and flew right over my head. My lack of comprehension was definitely not due to lack of interest; I was trying, trying very hard to digest the show to gain some basis of understanding. Clearly the show is about a cage, as suggested by the title, but that was largely the full breadth of my understanding. As I was watching the show, a flood of questions disseminated through my mind. Who created this cage? What does it symbolize? Did the “prisoner” escape? If they did, how did they escape? Sadly, as the last note was played, I failed to answer any of my questions. I walked away from the show confused and a bit dejected.

Fortunately, I was able to attend two shows this year. As I sat in the audience watching Broken City Percussion walk in and set up at SCPA finals, I told myself to not stress out about understanding the show and to focus on being in the moment and enjoying their performance. Funnily enough, as I watched the show the second time with this approach, I had a much more inspirational experience. Instead of trying to second-guess the designers intent, I let the musicality and imagery emotionally connect with my subconscious. And as I did that, the show came alive. The theme of the production molded itself to mirror my own insecurities and my own personal development.

“Spending hours and days”. Once the show begins, the opening emotional statement of the production is unequivocal. Desperation is heavily communicated by the visual body work, the spoken sample, and the long drawn out notes from the synth. The distress is so dense that it physically manifests itself through the display of suffocation. The members stretch their arms to reach for something, anything to pull them out of this prison of uncertainty. A single light bulb is positioned front and center, alluring and taunting the members of a better life, a life they can never attain. The finishing sample of the opening phrase, “An invisible life I guess, deserves an equally invisible death” perfectly summarizes the opening theme, an exceedingly defeatist narrative. Next, despair transforms to frustration. The music shifts, an ominous chord from the synth, an aggressive snare feature, a forceful guitar chord. The ensemble slowly adds more and more layers until it is practically exuding an immense sense of anger and agony. The theme is further developed visually. The members look and feel downcast and despondent; the physical gestures, choking and reaching, and downward angled postures occur again and again. Each section gets an opportunity to display their exasperation, from the basses, to the tenors, then finally to a demanding and assertive drum set duet. The performers fling their bodies around, like a helpless doll confined in some sadistic playhouse. The last visual moment of this phrase ends with the members covering there faces in shame. The feelings of being trapped, of being vulnerable, are communicated so well that as I watched, those familiar feelings stirred inside me. The frustration and insecurities exhibited throughout this piece became my own. The question that puzzled me earlier changes. “What is this cage the members are trying to escape?” becomes “What is the cage that is trapping me?”.

“Is there a way out?”. The ominous towering pipes are put into motion. The members desperately crawl towards these rusted, peculiar pipes, and then work together, slowly and deliberately, to mobilize these large props. The performers are rolling on the ground, contorting their bodies to try to grasp these bars. The positioning of these pipes on the floor, starting from the left edge slowly traversing to the right, clearly indicates progress. But progress of what? To the light? Perhaps this leads to a way out, an escape from this cage. The members seem to find solace when advancing them, but it’s not a simple process. Due to the nature of these pipes, the movements are awkward and cumbersome. As these pipes lumber across the floor, the music shifts in tone. Vastly different than before, the mood feels a bit optimistic. The previous common visual motifs no longer occur; the body language is less frantic, less frustrated, and becomes more purposeful, more determined. The struggle is still there, but now that the light at the end of the tunnel is visible, there’s hope. And with this newfound hope, the members are able to move these large props at a quicker pace. The members tilt, swivel, and rotate the pipes. They leap, they duck, they slide around them. The progress becomes easier and easier; they are now accustomed to the peculiar shape and the burden that comes along with it. As the props are almost across the floor, this progress is suddenly interrupted. “The way I am…”. The theme shifts. A snare feature is performed using a familiar aggressive style. Feelings of frustration and desperation resurface as the previous alacritous prop progression rapidly decelerates. The emphasized movements slow to a stop. The same visual body shape occurs again. Shame. Is this the true way out? After all this, was there any real progress?

“In the dark and in the light of day”. The floor is still, save for a lone performer. A single bell chimes as she dances across the floor. The rest of the ensembles movements and music are delegated to occur in the voids between her solitary motions. The dancer’s strong and purposeful movements offer a distinct contrast to the other members scurrying about aimlessly and confused. Throughout the entire show, everything was performed as unison moments. The visual choreography, the musical features, were all executed within a group, not as individuals. Here a new theme arises: independence. This unique solo moment, shakes the very foundation of the metaphorical cage. “To find a way”. The synth enters with a relieved melodic tone. The ensemble picks themselves up and harness their instruments to come together to play their final unison moment. Musically, it is a strange mixture of all the previous emotional motifs, a reprise to reminisce of the arduous journey taken. Finally, the performers set their instruments aside, and disperse throughout the floor. Members of the front ensemble desperately crawl forth, clutching a light by their side. Members of the battery rush to the cage’s bars to move them again, but this time in the opposite direction, undoing the progress seen earlier. Everybody on the floor is actively reaching or grasping on to either the lights or the pipes, delicately falling to the ground in defeat. Except for one, the lone member who rejects those notions. The one who truly escaped. “From here I’m on my own”.

This show is for those who feel stuck. Who live day by day feeling trapped, frustrated by the circumstances, feeling the inability to alter course. The bars that compose our prison are the preconceived beliefs of what a “perfect” life should be. We let societal pressures, tell us how to live our life. Why to live our life. These restricting mental constructs were initially injected from the outside, but are now being held firmly in place by our own thoughts. The cage is our own mind. We are trapping ourselves. We blindly chase conventional “wisdom”, without any afterthought, no proper analysis that doing so may be completely against our own inner peace. Following a path created by others is not meaningful progress; the end result just adds another faceless blob to the masses, clutching onto somebody else’s ideals. This is a show that passionately demands for you to save yourself. A show that wants you to realize that the only hindrance to your happiness is locked in place by your own accord. Choose to not be stuck, choose to not be distracted, instead set aside these duplicitous false restrictions. Don’t let societal constraints define your life’s course, be independent. Choose to think, choose to thrive, choose to bloom. This is a show that implores you to enter a journey of self-discovery, to re-define your path, to become reborn.