A nod to Serling in Subversive Theatre’s ‘Waterboarding Blues’
Published: April 03, 2009, 7:20 am
Story tools:
Share this story:
On the list of likely topics for crowd-pleasing theater, waterboarding has to rank somewhere in the bottom third.
But Kurt Schneiderman, founder and artistic director of the Subversive Theatre Collective, isn’t out to produce the latest piece of theatrical cotton candy. Since its launch in 2002, Schneiderman’s company has used its stage to confront society’s deepest injustices and agitate its audience around political issues. And with his latest play, “Waterboarding Blues,” Schneiderman continues his company’s refusal to shy away from difficult contemporary stories.
The show, which follows Schneiderman’s 2007 piece “Foundations,” has an unlikely inspiration.
“It came to me while watching one of those New Year’s Eve ‘Twlight Zone’ marathon things,” Schneiderman said. “So many of those sci-fistories have such good political commentary in them, and a lot of them are very clever and reach people in a way that more obvious political commentary might not reach people. I remember watching this and thinking, ‘It’s a pity Rod Serling isn’t around today. What would he say about Iraq and the Patriot Act and what clever ways would he find to make a comment on this?’ ”
In the absence of Serling, the creator and narrator of the popular 1960s science-fiction series, Schneiderman crafted his own semi sci-fi narrative to deal with what he sees as a serious misrepresentation of the intentions of America’s founding fathers.
“Waterboarding Blues” features a Marine interrogator, played by Gordon Tashjian, who receives a strange series of prisoners of war to question. Throughout the play, it becomes clear that the people Tashjian’s character is interrogating are not exactly of this world, and he must confront the questionable techniques he has been ordered to use to extract information from them.
For Schneiderman, the play is a rebuff to those he sees as misrepresenting the convictions of Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine, who, in their day, argued for political actions that would be considered radical today.
“There are a lot of people who claim to be the voice of the founding fathers who I’d love to confront,” Schneiderman said. But the trouble with confronting people, as any audience member who has been preached at can attest, is straying too far away from the basic entertainment value of drama. Schneiderman says he recognizes this.
“I think when you get to the point where you’re just lecturing people, you’re no longer an artist, you’re just a speechifier,” Schneiderman said. But he sees the unique goal of Subversive Theatre as a direly needed mission few others are fulfilling.
“Who the [heck] else is going to say anything about this? Certainly not the politicians, certainly not the historians. Certainly not the academics. So artists better step up to the plate and do something.”
PREVIEW
WHAT: “Waterboarding Blues”
WHEN: Tonight through April 19
WHERE: Manny Fried Playhouse, 255 Great Arrow Drive, 3rd floor
TICKETS: Pay what you can INFO: 408-0499 or www.subversivetheatre.org
cdabkowski@buffnews.com
Reader comments
Log into MyBuffalo to post a comment
MyBuffalo is the new social network from Buffalo.com. Your MyBuffalo account lets you comment on and rate stories at buffalonews.com. You can also head over to mybuffalo.com to share your blog posts, stories, photos, and videos with the community. Join now or learn more.
Comments have been disabled.
Due to a high volume of submissions that violate The News’ guidelines, commenting is no longer available on this story. If you’d like to share your thoughts on this story, click here to get information on contributing to The News’ opinion pages.