Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Life Jacket Theatre Company’s AMERICA IS HARD TO SEE is a gentle, tough-minded docudrama

• By drediman
• February 24, 2018
• No Comments

The company of Travis Russ’s “America Is Hard to See”, a Life Jacket Theatre Company production at HERE Arts Center.

On the heels of The New Group’s sensational production of Jerry Springer: The Opera, I caught Travis Russ’s America Is Hard to See, courtesy of Life Jacket Theatre Company at Off-Broadway’s HERE Arts Center. Both, in their fascinating, unique ways, give voice to marginalized voices in our country. Whereas Jerry Springer (jarringly) reveals its misfits’ humanity by imbuing them with the dignity of high art, America Is Hard to See, which closes this weekend, uses a gentle but tough – and highly musical – docudrama approach. Those of you who are familiar with the works of The Civilians or have seen the unlikely Broadway hit Come from Away know that live theater can be a remarkably potent platform to present works of nonfiction.

What’s different about America Is Hard to See is that this direct, plainly soulful approach is used to portray a rather unsavory bunch. They are the inhabitants of a Miracle Village, a remote village established to ghettoize sex offenders – specifically, pedophiles. Indeed, the incongruity of the piece lies in the gentle way it’s told, much of it through Priscilla Holbrook’s effective acoustic score. The ensemble piece – the cast includes gorgeously understated performances by Ken Barnett, John Carlin, Joyce Cohen, Amy Gaither Hayes, David Spadora, and Gareth Tidbal – is acted with quiet precision, whose cumulative effect is devastating. In the end, America Is Hard to See offers balanced portrayals that are also forgiving and deeply redemptive.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

AMERICA IS HARD TO SEE
Off-Broadway, Play (with music)
Life Jacket Theatre Company at HERE Arts Center
1 hour, 30 minutes (without an intermission)
Through February 24