BWW Reviews: Urban Renewal

This was my second performance that I have attended presented by the French Institute Alliance Francaise (FIAF), and Hermes Foundations New Settings program. My expectations were high after attending Acting Out, another performance that is a part of the Crossing the Line Festival, and I am pleased to say that this festival has yet to disappoint me. Urban Renewal was utterly spectacular. Even though I typically write about dance, I was more than happy to write up a good review for this comical and heartfelt performance.

In this hour and a half long monologue by Kyle deCamp and Joshua Thorson, we get to experience the impact of political action and the impending negative effects it can have on a community and, more specifically, on a child: one child, in particular. This child, deCamp, is the narrator, the star of the show, and she is oblivious to what is happening to her home and to her community. But through her innocent eyes, we become entranced as an audience to the reverberating changes a community and family can undergo because of the actions of one person, or one government.

We start with deCamp at the tender age of a four, a child in the 60s putting on a play about pirates in her home, knowing her home inside and out. It is familiar. It is all she's ever known. It's all she's ever had to know. Home is safe. But then a year passes, and we learn the news that because of "urban renewal" in Chicago, her home will be torn down as part of a development that will help the city grow. Of course, we already know the end of this story- we know what Chicago and Hyde Park, more specifically, looked like in the 60s. But, again, through the eyes of a child, this didn't seem like much of a concern. In fact, it was quite exciting that she might get to experience a wrecking ball in action, or maybe even have the chance to paint her walls like the other kids on her block who were moving out of their homes.

The play became powerful, yet still retained its humorous mood, as deCamp grew into a teenager. She experienced first-hand the dangerous neighborhood that was once her home, police harassment, and criminals. The story is powerful enough on its own, the message coming across loud and clear; political power affects us all, directly or indirectly. Government actions have consequences. When homes are torn down for "urban renewal," lives are uprooted and entire cities are transformed- sometimes for the worse. This message, however, is made all the more powerful through the innocent and naïve eyes of a child- someone who doesn't understand everything that is happening around her, who doesn't know how this will impact her future. All of the events played out in front of us unfolded in her life as a result of one meaningless action, making the monologue nothing less than powerful as we got to experience through her eyes the drastic changes brought about in her life due to an empty lot of dirt and grass.

As the show went on, there was a constant stream of historical information about urban renewal on a screen in the background, as well as photographs of the neighborhood, deCamp's childhood home, or the debris where the home once stood as well, serving as a haunting back-drop to the stage. Not only that, but trans-media was brilliantly used on the stage as well, incorporating the staging and choreography around blueprints and drawings of a house that deCamp walked around on, the picture of the house moving along the floor, growing bigger or smaller as deCamp maneuvered through her childhood home.

And I must compliment deCamp on her excellent recovery and good humor when mistakenly skipping over a scene in her monologue. Upon realizing that she had forgotten an important part, she let the audience know she had made a mistake and needed to "rewind. It's theatre. We can do that," she said with a smile on her face, earning raucous laughter from the audience.

My luck so far with this festival has been outstanding. If you have yet to attend a performance, there are still more to come. All of the future selections for this festival appear to be promising. Peruse the upcoming acts at fiaf.org/ctl. This is an event in NYC you won't want to miss out on.

Photo credit: Paula Court

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