Thursday, October 21, 2021
“Live From the Edge” created and performed by UNIVERSES at City Theatre
The Pittsburgh Tatler: Seven virtuosic performers from the company UNIVERSES are in town at City Theatre with Live From the Edge, a production that might best be described as a “highlight reel” of their unique brand of musical storytelling. Using nothing but the human body as an instrument, the ensemble generates an astonishing richness of harmony, melody, and rhythm as they deliver songs that blend and juxtapose the musical vernaculars of the spiritual, gospel, jazz, hiphop, Spanish bolero, Portuguese fado, beatboxing, salsa, and the blues, with the occasional nod to Motown and the American musical.
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3 comments:
I want to see this show So. Bad. To me, this production sounds like everything I love about theater: using the performers in front of your face as a method to humanize and simultaneously theatricalize real people who your audience may never meet. The lack of a set narrative is a very interesting choice for a show, and I think it will help ground the audience in a show full of music and poetry: after all, real life doesn’t have a set narrative either. I’m also very intrigued by the way this production uses no instruments, but also includes music genres I strongly associate with instrumental music, like jazz. This is the second time I’m hearing of this production, the first being from Susan Tsu on Tuesday morning. The more I hear about it, the more I feel like this production has found the perfect space between production value, music, poetry, and message. I will definitely be in the audience.
I went to see this show Friday night, and WOW. I had never experienced spoken word, and this powerful poetic show was truly so moving. The dynamic nature of the set coupled with incredible musicality and lighting design was enthralling. I found myself deeply drawn in by the rhythm in each piece, tapping my feet or clapping without thought, it was truly so engaging. There was a piece near the end of the 2-hour set that Mildred Ruiz-Sapp introduced as a theatre as church. While it was very clear from her call-outs to the audience that we were not all the same religion or ethnicity, that we all connected to this love of theatre and the power it holds. It was powerful and uplifting and really inspired me as a member of the theatre community. Another part that I adored was the retelling of peoples stories. Recently we as freshmen DPs have been thinking a lot about how we can accurately and accurately tell people’s stories, and UNIVERSES did a wonderful job. They did it in a way that was emotionally charged while also taking the time to introduce where they found their sources and acknowledge and appreciate them.
I'm going to be honest I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from the video after reading the blurb but I was very pleasantly surprised by the pacing and spoken word nature. I'd really like to see this show! I'm a little unclear about the format of the show, however. Does not having a set narrative mean it's different each day? That was the impression I got from the author using the phrase "on the day I saw the show." The only reason I could see for me not wanting to see this show is the audience participation aspect. Generally, I don't like feeling seen while I'm consuming media of any type. I hate the idea of people, especially the performers, looking for and gauging my reactions and thoughts. That's one of the reasons being in the round is a bit uncomfortable for me. I don't like that others are looking at you and you're looking at them. I feel more free to express and feel my emotions about what's being said when I don't also feel observed. I'm curious whether the entire piece utilizes the voice to create all senses of music. At least for the snippet the performers also acted almost like instrumentals as well which is very dynamic and interesting.
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