This past Friday, we accepted an invitation to catch the local performance of "The Hardest Question Ever," a puppet show performance art piece examining the societal role in creating and punishing violence through the prism of incarceration. The show was put together by Indicator Species, a Pittsburgh based collective of teachers, artists and activists who work on prison issues.
The show opened with live music from Ricardo who took our collective breath away. His acoustic guitar performance and lyrics were just stunning. I hunted him down at the end and ordered him to add us to his email list. :-) He told us he'd be performing live soon so we'll keep you informed.
The show itself was a 1/2 hour mixture of live action, puppets, and music. I was skeptical at first as I always am when surrounded by a crowd of seemingly preternaturally thin people who made me feel incredibly mainstream .... one of the nightmare moments when someone points at you and yells "She's wearing Mom jeans" while everyone laughs. Then someone's actual mom sat down in front of us with her two staunch suburbanite lady friends and I felt a the comforting shift back to slightly left of center. Whew. As soon as the group took the stage, all sense of discomfort fell away and I merged right into a crowd waiting to be taught.
The stage included a life-sized prison cell that is used for solidary confinement. The walls were constructed from thousands of letters the artists had received through their books for prisoners program Book 'Em, a project of the Thomas Merton Center. The show included 4 acts reconciling the horror of crime with the horror of prison. Through live narration of cases based on the real life experiences of the artists, the show explores the complicated nature of something mainstream media and politics tends to oversimplify -- delving into the gray. One case involved a former friend and comrade who had raped and murdered a woman -- the dialogue was a refreshing examination of all that had come before.
I have to give the Indicator Species credit -- they really did ask the hardest questions. When someone you know has raped and murdered, what does that mean for our own complicity in creating a violent society? To simply say that you could not have physically prevented the crime is not enough of an answer. What about all that came before -- at what point can we as a society prevent any crime? And how does the way we treat our criminals reflect back on our values?
"The cracks I fell through were the indifference of the people around me."
Indicator Species will be taking their show on the road for a two month tour. For more details on upcoming Pittsburgh performances fedup@riseup.net or trust_the_shadow@yahoo.com
It was a good show -- thoughtful, earnest and personal. It was obvious that the members of the collective put a huge investment of their personal stories, fears, hopes, and values into this show. That investment touched me from the first chord and lifted me over any bumps in the road. I would see this again when it returns to Pittsburgh. And I'm going through my books to donate to the program.
