last night i had the pleasure of seeing mary arrchie theatre company's THE BRIG.
what: the brig by kenneth h. brown
where: mary arrchie's space (known as angel island) on sheridan & broadway
accompaniment: the coolest dude around: dustin.
drinkability: byob! or do what we did & get margs down the street at el mariachi beforehand.
show length: 1 hour, no intermission.
out of four: two and a half/four
i was very excited to finally catch a show at mary arrchie. the show i'm currently in was directed by carlo lorenzo-garcia, the producing director for this production & mary arrchie in general, and a few of my castmates are also m.a. associated, so when the preview tickets showed up on goldstar super cheap i snatched 'em up.
doors open just under 10 minutes before the show starts and you immediately enter into "the brig" aka the military prison these nine men are in. the nine prisoners are sleeping in their bunks while the guards mill around as the audience sits making small talk until its time for them to waken the prisoners. the seating in the space is strange and most definitely uncommon. we got seats in an isolated cage area that was boxed in floor to ceiling by a chain link fence. shortly after the show began they closed and "locked" the gate, locking the 10 or so of us in with it. other audience members sit along the walls as well as in the center of the barracks.
the show is a display of the day in the life of these prisoners in the brig. it's a glimpse into actions that we have all seen in military tv and movies (lots of yelling, lots of "yes sir, no sir", lots of tasks like scrubbing the floors, redressing their bunks, etc.) with a hint of an extra threat as these prisoners are in the brig for a set amount of days for something they have done. but, what was it that they did? unfortunately: this question is simply never answered.
i have no doubts this is an accurate display of a marine brig, as playwright kenneth h. brown wrote this on account of his own 30 days spent in one in 1957. we watch the 9 prisoners march, run, undress, redress, undress, redress, undress, redress, get frisked, do pushups, get humiliated, be physically abused, sweat, yell, yell some more, and many other physically demanding loss-of-breath-inducing actions. simply put: the audience spends 60 minutes watching men do what their told and ask permission to correctly complete the tasks.
we only hear from one prisoner throughout the show who steps out of line and demands to be set free. he is shortly after thrown into the cage in which i was sitting. this sparked a bit of hope in me, hoping we'd see more insight into the prisoners and why exactly they ended up in the brig or any sort of real emotion from them apart from simply following the demands of their officers.
the physical aspect of this show and the total commitment by the actors is nothing short of impressive. i felt exhausted FOR them by the time the show was over. my only wish was that we got to see more into these men's lives, or even have any sort of insight as to what sort of mishap sends you to the brig. obviously that wasn't kenneth h. brown's intention but instead to simply immerse the audience in a day-in-the-life of something that most people will never get to experience.
go see this show for the physical triumphs these actors achieve, just don't expect your typical storyline. and there's nothin' wrong with that.
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upcoming april shows:
sunday april 21, 4pm: the building stage's dawn quixote
saturday april 27, 8pm: oracle theatre's the mother
tuesday april 30, 7pm: the unrehearsed shakespeare company's much ado about nothing
join me, will you?
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