Making Art in the Era of Pandemic-Realism
Christie Vela in Lustrous
As Theatre Three’s “Love and Kindness in the Time of Quarantine” began, my dog stared at me intently, hoping to catch a few errant crumbs off my dinner plate. By now, one year into socially distanced cultural consumption, clicking the hyperlink in lieu of a curtain call is old hat for theatre goers. A year of made for the screen “live” theatre has lost the sense of the uncanny it initially filled us with when stages first went dark.
Earlier screen-staged Theatre Three shows have been far more obviously theatrical; making use of familiar stages, puppets, and multiple actors in a scene utilizing the magic of editing. Love and Kindness in the Time of Quarantine feels more like alternating between your open youtube browser tab and a zoom call with a close friend. A far cry from normal stagecraft certainly -- but it works.
Theatre Three passes the mic to writers to present a set of new works beautifully curated and directed by Regina Taylor. Comprised of a series of monologues and songs, this performance tackles the dire straits of the contemporary political and emotional zeitgeist. This show forces a double-take of the past year’s most difficult moments, and calls out hashtag activism and debilitating ennui.
Powerfully cast and beautifully rendered, Christie Vela’s performance in Lustrous stood out above the rest. Writer Blake Hackler’s delightful and poignant narrative is a story anyone who experienced quarantine alone will relate to.
Marti Etheridge and Marlene Beltran captured the at-home sensibilities of lockdown. Writers Michael Federico and Virginia Griac seemed to stare directly into my soul at times to find their source material for these two monologues. While each work was engaging -- and the titular themes of love and kindness more than obvious throughout -- these vignettes missed an opportunity to move past pandemic-realism into the uncanny.
I consider this a missed opportunity because I didn’t really want to revisit all of these memories. I didn’t want to return to the feeling of mid-January when the question of that night’s dinner constituted the limit of my decision making abilities. I didn’t want to parse the motivations of my own obsession with plants, long dormant and reinvigorated in April 2020. I didn’t want to wonder again when I would hear from friends and family, or when I should reach out myself -- or why I hadn’t already.
If realism supposedly holds up a mirror to society, these monologues accomplish that end. However, when life is a horror movie, no mirror is to be trusted. I looked for the plot twist behind me in my reflection, and I was disappointed. I wanted to be entertained, and instead I was asked to contemplate my image.
This invitation to contemplation, while frustrating in other pieces, was particularly effective in the powerful calls to action performed by Cassie Luong and Gabrielle Beckford and written by Sandy Lam and Regina Taylor. These pieces effectively communicated deep pain and heartbreak surely renewed by this week’s news of the killing of Daunte Wright.
The unique musical portion of the show featured writing and performance by Paloma Nance, Nelson Nance, Cherish Robinson, and Sammy Rat Rios.
Credit is due to the artistic staff and other collaborators Sophia Basiliadia, Sid Curtis, Jeffrey Schmidt, Max Overton, Nikki Blue, Ronald Nance and Robert Anthony for yet another successful remote show. I have so much respect for Theatre Three’s perseverance this year as they continue to deliver safe theatre even in the worst of times.
Isabel Allende once noted that her motivations to write were to “preserve memory,” and I cannot think of a better reason to play this show. Don’t miss this chance to see this production before it closes on April 18, 2021. Get your tickets here.
