Concert Review I

For my first performance of the class I decided to go see "Lightcatchers," and acoustic and dramatic program put on as part of Take Back the Night Week.

Now, for me, this performance was divided into the acoustic and the dramatic portions, with some bleed inbetween them. This was for several reasons. First, I thought the two portions of the performance existed seperately, and while the music continued into the dramatic performance, I thought the transition as the play began was slightly abrupt. Second, I had criticisms for the nature of the dramatic performance that had nothing whatsoever to do with the music.

I will go through, briefly, my criticisms of the dramatic portion first, and then move on to the acoustic performance.

I have been heavily involved with Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence issues for several years now. I see programs, presentations and videos fairly regularly. I have friends talk to me about their experiences or stories as a survivor on a more regular basis than I wish for the world. I don't know if I have ever been as uncomfortable or as unsettled as I was during this performance.

Now I know to jar one's position is a significant point of this sort of activist production, especially one of with this level of audience interaction. But, I felt unprepared for what was going to happen. Instead of feeling positive about the experience, I know some of my friends simply felt awkward as they left, and I think this pushed them away instead of pulled them into the issue.

Now, the one point of intersection between the two for me was the tense buildup of emotions during the climax of the production that was significantly helped by Professor Burtner's playing. As the obvious point of this portion of the performance was to increase the tension, it achieved it's job remarkably well. His choice of sounds and style - using the guitar as a controller as had sounds running through the speakers on stage and pointed at the audience fit very well with the scene of domestic abuse that was taking place contemporaneously.

I also enjoyed the music that served as the introduction. I thought the method here was very interesting. The way Professor Burtner and the actor playing the child of the couple were using small objects (I assume either marbles or pennies) to cover the speakers and change their tone completely was very cool. The sounds themselves gave me a sense of peace and calm, without being boring or simplistic.

However, it was this very sense of peace and calm that made me feel a disconnect between this piece and the drama that followed it. If this was meant to be a play showing some form of resolution, or healing that the music seemed to suggest, then I felt it would make more sense for the music to follow the drama. However, I can see how this may suggest happy endings for a subject in which that would be too simple and not truthful to the reality of the problem. But by having this music before, it paints the the child's worldview as being innocent before the argument, when in reality this problem seemed to be one that had existed for some time as the play presented it.

Either way, I enjoyed the performance, but felt that better warning of the serious nature of the content was needed, especially if this happens again next year.