Five former theater artists meet clandestinely in a dystopian totalitarian society in the near future where “The Leader” has banned all art, and even banned the words that describe what artists do, such as “playing the piano” and “art” itself.
That’s the premise of “The Meeting,” a play by Brian James Polak that launched this year’s New York City Fringe Festival, one of the 75 shows, chosen by lottery not by quality.
The play, which lasted just 45 minutes on the night I attended, has a few interesting things to say about the nature of art and the urge to create it. At one point, one of the five, all named Joe (that’s apparently a pseudonym they use to protect them from persecution by the state surveillance apparatus) explains how she keeps on performing, even though it’s only in private, or even just in her mind. “I don’t stop. I won’t. I can’t. It’s my purpose. Actually, fuck purpose. It’s my nature. And. It’s like. The sun doesn’t have a purpose. It doesn’t rise because it believes it must. It rises because that’s its nature. That is what keeps us connected. We do what we do because it’s who we are. No banning or booting will ever stop us.”
However, the dramatic set-up that frames the discussion doesn’t work for me. This is in large part, I think, because of the premise, which misjudges fascist societies.
As it happens, Bret Stephens makes a relevant observation today in conversation with Frank Bruni (in today’s The Conversation column in the New York Times) about Donald Trump’s “tastelessness and classlessness” — in particular his plans for the tacky “Titanic ballroom” in the White House, but in general “the replacement of real achievements with vacuous adornments.”
Bruni has just argued they should “divorce ‘aesthetic’ from ‘moral,’” but Stephens responds:
“Bad taste and autocratic instincts tend to go together for a reason, because the purpose of autocratic design is to overawe rather than intrigue or delight; to erase beauty, which elicits a sense of humanity and reverence, with largeness, which elicits fear.”
Real-life totalitarian dystopias don’t ban art or the word “art”; they take it over, and aggrandize it; they change the word’s meaning. North Korea presents an annual Arirang Festival, in which features a huge mosaic picture created by more than 30,000 school children, and a gymnastics event featuring 100,000 performers.
“The Meeting” has three more performances at the Chain Theater, April 3,4 and 6.
Written by Brian James Polak
Directed by Richard Piatt, sound design by Joe Luis Cedillo
Cast: Marcela Barrens, Kirsten Bennett, Mitch Lerner, Veronica Matthews, Julia Polstnieks
