Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – DRILL & ANTIGONE IN FERGUSON: Reaching across time, space, and genres to make a point about gun violence

• By drediman
• July 14, 2019
• No Comments

This weekend, I experienced two novel, multidisciplinary projects that reached across time and space to make their respective points about this country’s seemingly unresolvable problem with gun violence.

Hito Steyerl’s “Drill” at the Park Avenue Armory.

First up was Drill (RECOMMENDED), filmmaker and critic Hito Steyerl’s multi-room art installation that has taken over the Park Avenue Armory – including the massive Wade Thompson Drill Hall – since mid-June. Ms. Steyerl uses film, sculpture, and the history and structure of the armory itself to give this country’s gun violence problem the kind of sweeping context (e.g., its relationship with culture and society, militarism, the economy, the evolution of technology, art, etc.) one doesn’t get in most discourses about the issue. The piece also provides thoughtful commentary on the role of art as a coping and healing mechanism for those who have ever been in “the line of fire”, whatever that may mean to the survivor. As much as Antigone in Ferguson (discussed below) is impassioned and necessarily unruly, Ms. Steyerl’s latest project (a Park Avenue Armory commission) is cool, articulate, and at times even slightly satirical. In fact, the overall impact of the installation unsettled me with its objective gaze, a welcome but decidedly uncomfortable perspective on the shockingly and unfortunately ongoing conundrum.

Brooklyn Public Library and Theater of War Productions’ “Antigone in Ferguson” at St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church.

Also this weekend at St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn Heights (courtesy of Brooklyn Public Library and Theater of War Productions), I caught the penultimate performance of the return New York engagement of Antigone in Ferguson (RECOMMENDED), Bryan Doerries’ new version of the Greek tragedy that puts it in direct conversation with people’s reactionary feelings toward the 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown (and subsequent shootings). Overlaid onto Sophocles’ fierce play is a blast of new gospel music by Phil Woodmore, performed ecstatically by a live band and chorus. The second half of the evening segues into a guided discussion with a panel and the audience about gun violence. The result is an undisciplined but undeniably thrilling evening that was cathartic as much as it was frustrating. Like most immersive theatrical events in which “audiences” have skin in how the drama unfolds, the inability for the show’s creators to totally curate the proceedings made for — at times — meandering and unfocused theater. That being said, Antigone in Ferguson is never less than a visceral experience, especially when the production explodes into full throated gospel music mode.

ANTIGONE IN FERGUSON
Off-Broadway, Play / Concert
Brooklyn Public Library & Theater of War Productions / St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church
2 hours, 30 minutes (without an intermission)
Closed

DRILL
Art Installation
Park Avenue Armory
Allot approximately 1 hour, 30 minutes to explore
Through July 21