trauma, racism, antisemitism
I recently went to see "Fires in the Mirror", which is a one--person play where a single actor portrays numerous black and white Jewish witnesses to the Crown Heights riots in1991. All of the dialogue is taken from documentary interviews of real people. It was a very fine performance, but emotionally harrowing. It left me thinking about how these stories should be told, but what happens to us when we treat them as merely prestige entertainment?
trauma, racism, antisemitism
I'm not the kind of person who cries at sad movies, but by the end of the play I felt devastated. Many of the other people in the audience were able to establish more of an emotional distance and left feeling pleased and edified, talking amongst themselves about technical details of the acting. I can understand that reaction, but it seems like a defense mechanism, a way of seeing the play without really engaging with it and being hurt by it.
trauma, racism, antisemitism
We can go see movies or plays or exhibits about the holocaust and black chattel slavery and lynchings and pogroms, and leave feeling like better people for it. For having witnessed black and Jewish pain and suffering. Giving these things ticket prices seems perverse. From having had to go on stage and discuss my own trauma, it often feels like self-harm for the artist. What is the point if the audience leaves merely satisfied at having seen a nice piece of art?
