Luminous Streets
Reviewed by Taylor Kass
The Roots & Wings Project at Words Uncaged
Through November 10
The streets of DTLA are dangerous for women: This immersive collection of five short plays makes that clear. If you are a femme-identifying person coming to see Luminous Streets, directed by Jesse Bliss for The Roots & Wings Project, expect to put yourself in danger — to park in an unlit parking garage, to navigate alleys to find the venue, to sign a vaguely-worded waiver. As you walk several blocks to each of the site-specific pieces, you and the other theatergoers are flanked by security guards, reminding you just how unsafe you really are.
Overall, the writing of each piece lacks nuance and clarity. The characters spout spiritual platitudes (“Where there is death, there is rebirth”) that seem more the playwright’s voice than the characters’, creating a bizarre disconnect between the visceral experiences they undergo and the detached way in which they describe them. And the acting is just as self-indulgent as the writing, with prolonged pauses and outbursts of emotion that are only cathartic for the actors themselves. Ironically, the only male performer in the show (Boogie Frantick) appears in three of the five pieces; he gets much more stage time than any of the femme actors whom this play is supposedly about.
The discrepancy between the lofty moral messaging and the reality of the immersive experience itself is jarring. The play Un Beso Porfa describes a character’s sexual assault in detail and even partially recreates the incident. However, the production provides no content warning whatsoever — so that an audience member who had experienced sexual assault in the past could potentially be profoundly triggered by watching this unfold onstage, with no chance to prepare or otherwise excuse him or herself to protect their mental health.
Monica’s World features a disabled character frustrated at how invisible she feels and how difficult it is for her to literally navigate the world. Meanwhile, we have just climbed up stairs, walked along crowded streets for several blocks, and remained standing for most of Luminous Streets‘ three-hour total run time. The problem is, anyone who is unable to meet the physical demands of this “Immersive Theatrical Tour” would not be able to see the play that is supposed to shed light on their experience. It is at best tone deaf and at worst exploitative to tell the stories of people for whom your show is partially or completely inaccessible.
The discrimination and other difficulties coped with by each character are all-too-real challenges faced by real women every day. But none of the women in any of these plays feel like fully realized people; they are merely vessels for presenting issues, bodies on which to inflict pain. If the message of Luminous Streets is that femme-identifying people are more powerful than the trauma they endure, these femme characters are, tragically, wholly defined by their traumas.
Words Uncaged @ Medallion Apartments, 334 S. Main St., Downtown L.A. — The Historic Core; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m.; through Nov 10. www.therootsandwingsproject.com/. Running time: three hours with 10-minute intermissions at each site.
