K.W. Kuchar’s ten/thirtyfour – the title derives from the police code for “riot in progress” – aspires to describe the aftermath in Washington of Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination. Kuchar tries to adopt the documentary style of Moises Kaufman’s The Laramie Project or Anna Deavere Smith’s Fires in the Mirror, and, to a certain extent, succeeds.
Using a combination of real historical figures – Stokely Carmichael, Bobby Kennedy, Sterling Tucker, H. Rap Brown, Leonard Downie Jr. (whose work on the riots guided the construction of the play), and the like – fiction, news clips from the time (projected onto the background) and reporting by actors recreating the newscasts of the period, ten/thirtyfour does a good job of portraying the anxiety of a time in which racial violence had the potential to crack the core of this Republic. Kuchar has done serious research, and the play reflects its results.
The problem is that we know how the story ends. The Laramie Project succeeds because we learn something during the course of the play: Kaufman’s investigators, visiting the home town of a murdered gay man, expect to see a homophobe’s paradise. Instead, they discover the bell-shaped curve: a town full of sweet, non-judgmental, generous people who generally accept gay people, along with a few homophobes. In Ten/thirtyfour, on the other hand, we generally see what we expect to see. Kuchar attempts to add suspense by superimposing the story of Josh (Assoumon Diby), an African-American teenager who lives with his mom (Crystal Marie Grant) and has a Caucasian girlfriend (Elizabeth Rudin). Once the riots start, Josh skates awfully close to the fire, but Kuchar doesn’t develop enough of a backstory to engage the audience in his dilemma. Josh’s principal ambition appears to be to pick up cool stuff from looted stores, and so it is hard to develop rooting interest for him.
Although the principal subject of the play is the riots in Washington, we spend a great deal of time reviewing the pre-assassination riots in Detroit, Newark and Los Angeles. This diffusion of focus does not help to engage the audience, either. It is necessary to place the Washington riots in context, of course, but when the historical background threatens to eat the play, you’ve gone too far.
The production itself could also use some work. Blair Galiber is strong as the narrator; Anthony Carrell is fabulous as H. Rap Brown delivering a rageful letter from prison; and Joseph Randazzo does serviceable turns as Kennedy and Downie, but in general the cast is not helpful. Several folks have trouble with the lines; when they are delivered intact the actors sometimes have difficulty maintaining eye contact or sounding authentic. The technical side also needs improvement. In the show I saw Stokely Carmichael slammed the receiver down on the pay phone, knocking it from the wall. I realize that you can’t recreate a sturdy village on stage with a typical Fringe production budget, but situations like this call for sensible adjustments: try a table phone instead.
Kuchar has taken on an important subject – one that deserves to be recalled and examined. As he continues to work on his text – which I hope he will – he might consider adding more insight and suspense. For example, there is almost nothing in the script about the causes of Black rage. Remember, this was the period immediately following the passage of the Civil Rights Bill, the repeal of the poll tax, and the launching of the War on Poverty. The ensuing violent strife came as a surprise to many white folks. Ten/thirtyfour gives us the picture from one side of the mirror; some day, I hope, it will let us look from both sides.
Ten/thirtyfour
Written, Produced and Directed by K.W. Kuchar
Reviewed by Tim Treanor
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Did you see the show? What did you think?
Hey! I’ve seen 3 other shows since Fringe opened, The Cloak Room, VanPouffe Family Singers, and Uncontented Love, and this was by far the most moving.
I would have liked to see a little more scenes from the mom, son and Claire? (not sure of name). While the mother clearly looked like a peer of her son, I enjoyed their story.
Stokely was great, the Black Power guy was scarily virulent, the narrator was sassy (although someone called her brother man), and I liked the minister. The soldier wasn’t convincing, but his other characters were strong.
I liked it, and would (I already have) recommend it to someone else. This review is a bit harsh… If any of the director or cast is reading this, I say kudos!
I think Kuchar should be commended for daring to bring new world to the stage that is not as touchy feely as people want these days. And this show is much more than people should expect from a FRINGE show– all of the integrated multimedia and not just doing a “standard black box” production, which is boring. And I didn’t realize a prop telephone falling off a wall was a call for technical improvements, again considering this show seems so technically superior to what is usually in the FRINGE. It’s not like they chose to just project small images on a screen either, the integrated the whole show into a world that included projections that took up the whole stage, including full stage video of footage from the actual time period.
I also feel I need to take a moment to congratulate the cast- who dared to not only create characters being brought to life for the first time on stage, but creating characters that are real people, alive, living in DC, and could possibly show up in their audience. Saying the cast is not helpful seems to be more of an indication by the reviewer that he didn’t want to pay attention, but these actors kept me engaged as an audience member, and they didn’t drop their focus throughout the piece.
Congratulations to Mr. Kuchar and his entire team- I hope I can see a fully mounted production of this in the future at one of the great DC theatres- I would definitely pay to see it.
I do not think you saw the same show other people did. The history of the period drives the show so how could there be too much of it…and then later not be enough? Also the pay phone falling, mistakes happen, why would you comment on that technical element when there was a beautiful giant handmade drop that also served as a projection screen and the projections themselves. And no director in there right mind would put a table phone in place of a pay phone that is suppose to be on the street.