The third performance in my Oregon Shakespeare Festival marathon was Party People at the New Theatre, my favorite of the OSF spaces. The modular performance arena was set up in a three-quarter thrust format, with an industrial design of a simple steel catwalk and constructivist levels for the performers. Party People is an unfortunate and misleading title, as few of the folks in the lobby were prepared for seeing a work about two revolutionary political parties of the sixties. A title such as “Bread, Blood, Land, Justice” (something like the much-repeated chant in the text) would have far better invoked the spirit of the work, and given audiences a opening to what was really at stake in the passionate struggles of these revolutionary American figures.
As part of the OSF initiative called “American Revolutions: the United States History Cycle”, this project was commissioned from the Universes collective, which is based in New York City. Universes members Mildred Ruiz-Sapp, William Ruiz a.k.a. Ninja, and Steven Sapp, use performance languages that are a rhythm-driven fusion of poetry, ritualized story-telling, rap, hip-hop, dance, and song. Universes spent three years researching the Young Lords and the Panthers under the auspices of OSF’s commission, interviewing party members, and trying to integrate true histories with the aesthetics of Universes. I was greatly disappointed that so little of the history of the 1960’s revolutionary movements made its way into the so-called party. Audience members left experiencing little about Eldridge Cleaver, Angela Davis, or Huey Newton, much less able to grasp anything but the most obvious details about the characters Clara, Solias, Marcus, or Malik, who are within the world of the performance.
The program tells us that “The play asks the question “What would happen if members of these two revolutionary groups met decades after the height of their activism at an art gallery installation devoted to their work? Would the old ties and animosities still be there?”. That question may have instigated the process. But we are not left with anything like a play in an art gallery. Party People is a cathartic and ritualized poetic drama. It is a mythology, an exorcism of the ghosts of the parties’ struggle and the tensions between African American and Latino activists. It attempts to give voice to the next generation of potential world-changers, the aptly named “panther cubs” . The performance holds a great deal for the hardest working actors at the Festival. The relentless rhythm of the dance and song of the piece is exhausting to perform and looks it, but intoxicating it must be. The hypnotic power of memory holds sway within the racing heartbeat of the text, but it is only available to Universes (and company) onstage. Most of us are left out. The actor/singer/dancers are deep within it, hardly aware of us, and certainly cannot be. The stories to be told are obscured in hidden histories, and neglectful of the details that audience who are unfamiliar with the nearly forgotten era, need for clarity.
The production values of this work are seductively contemporary, with a high tech branding yielded by layers of sound, amplified text, simulcast and time delayed live video (an eerie and effective theatricalization of an illusive present tense), and powerful choreography. Liesl Tommy’s conception and direction has created a piece with precision tautness and explosive physicality, but to what end? We, the audience, cannot venture into the place the performers are striving to reach. We can only witness and at that, many of us felt like unwelcome strangers and left without learning enough.
I hope that Universes go the next step towards completing this work. The revolutions in the painful history of these United States deserve nothing less than work that actually dares to name names, give details, and distinguish myths from truths. The history books are not telling us about the Black Panthers and the Young Lords. We need Universes to do it. The job is not finished.
Party People was commissioned by the American Revolutions initiative from the Universes collective: Mildred Ruiz-Sapp, William Ruiz a.k.a. Ninja, and Steven Sapp. Direction by Tommy Liesl. Plays through Nov 4th. Contact the Oregon Shakespeare Festival by going to www.oshashland.org.