“House Divided”, directed by Mirianne Weemes was a theatre performance which incorporated ideas from John Steinbecks famous novel “The Grapes of Wrath” and applied them to the modern mortage crisis. It was performed at Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Harvey Theatre.
The performance included large digital displays, and a house structure that also acted as a digital display throughout. Performers would act within the house structure as well outside of it. The setting of the house was in Columbus, Ohio, where the Joad family had to travel from. As in “The Grapes of Wrath”, the Joad’s had to make a long journey to California, where most of the lower class were migrating to for work and land during the time of the Great Depression. They were kicked off of their own land, and suffered with poverty and sickness throughout their path across America. The worst form of sufferering was that of homelessness, and leaving behind land that had history and meaning to the family.
“House Divided” alternated between fictional scenes of the Joad families hardships and non-fictional scenes of modern day people dealing with Americas current mortgage crisis. The modern scenes include interviews with businessmen who make a profit from foreclosed homes or invest in them, a young woman acting as a foreclosing agent, and dialogue between two stockbrokers.
With watching this performance, I would have to agree with Phelans view on liveliness. Phelan believes that the human body is unique and that live performance cannot be shared with media. On the other hand, Auslander states that there is no clear cut distinction between human and technology in a production, and that the two can be morphed. In “House Divided”, the media overpowered the personal feel that a live performance usually leaves the audience with. Without the media, I usually find myself running through several emotions like when watching Pina Bausch’s piece last week. After “House Divided”, all that I left the theatre with was thoughts of the digitalized house and images, and the performances connection with “Grapes of Wrath”. I do not remember the performers faces or clothes. Although I do not wish to demean the value of the performers and their hard work, they were overshadowed by the media. Even when some of the characters were speaking, I found myself looking at their projected faces on one of the screens rather than their actual faces.
When listening to the directors talk after the show, I would have to side with the first older woman who seemed to be bashing on the piece. I was not left feeling wrath, or even any other emotion. I was simply left with a little more understanding of the foreclosure crisis in history and modern times of America. Rather than a performance, I would almost call this piece a type of documentary because of the lack of emotion that I felt. Overall, I would agree that in “House Divided”, media plus live performance amounted to simply media.
I have to agree with Olga on siding with the Phelan’s viewpoint for this performance. The performance, “House Divided”, utilized a great deal of media that overpowered and dwarfed the non-mediated performers. The performers, who actually spoke, were isolated and distant from the audience with the screens and the enormous, interactive set. The emphasis on the various uses of media with the screens, projection, house set breaking down, and the props distracted the audience from forming a cohesive storyline, connecting with the characters, and taking away an overall message. The role of the non-mediated performers were so minimal and directed more towards the audience than each other, causing the storyline and emotions to diminish.
Personally, I feel that emotions or a strong message should be the basis of a performance. This performance definitely had a strong message of how economic crises affect people both from the past and present. I did appreciate the connections between the Grapes of Wrath and the Housing crisis of today such as the clearing out of the homes, the homelessness status of individuals, and the frustration with the authoritative institutions. The message didn’t have an emotional impression on the audience and I feel that it is necessary for performances to be powerful and to resonate with individuals. The first older woman deserved a chance to finish speaking and I understood her point. However, the performance did revolve around the message but just wasn’t an emotional performance that the audience expected. I was confused why that was since Mirianne Weemes did state in the discussion that “Fear turns to wrath” and that was not evident to me in the performance.