FringeNYC 2013: Somewhere Safer
When radicals bomb a political rally in New York, they irrevocably alter the course of many lives. Examining memory's force and the dangers of extremism, Somewhere Safer reaches back and forth in time to capture the aftermath of the explosion.
Official production websiteShow details/ticketing at FringeNYC
Review by Edward Elefterion · August 14, 2013
Rigorously curated and highly competitive, FringeNYC is unofficially known as a kind of testing ground, a place to workshop new material that’s still in the development phase. This production of Somewhere Safer bears all the signs of material still in progress: a scattered script, awkward design, spirited acting, and broad-stroke directing. What the play has in spades is ideas. Lots of ideas.
Political philosophy and positioning, the meaning of responsibility, guilt, and the methods and costs of power are some of the main subjects covered in the torrential discourse, and the characters are more instruments that argue than people in danger or need. There’s not a jot of danger in the play, actually, yet I don’t think that’s what playwright Lauren Ferebee had in mind.
The central event from which before-and-after scenes explode is the bombing of a peaceful rally that kills a JFK-like presidential hopeful. The myriad characters include the hopeful’s brother who is reluctant when called upon to step up and run in his brother’s place, his “cause is nobler than us” wife, his protective and crafty speechwriter, an intern who gets too close to him for his (party’s) good – she also happened to date the bomber when he was a burgeoning college radical, the home-grown radical himself, the anchor for a FOX-like TV station, an elder statesman those-were-the-days media mogul, an independent photojournalist bent on going back to the middle-eastern front to take important photos, and the photographer he tries to talk into joining him but who prefers to take portraits in her private studio after an already harrowing time in the midst of heavy middle-eastern shelling. Ideas. A lot of ideas. The character description alone provides enough material for several electrifying plays, but Somewhere Safer literally layers them all atop one another, several times, in fact. The resulting cacophony is intentional, of course, but I’m not sure what goal it’s aiming for.
This kind of ripped-from-the-headlines material is important. But shaping it into something pointed and meaningful, even at the expense of those ideas that will invariably hit the cutting room floor, is even more important. Because without a laser-beam focus, the material more imitates the tower of Babel political causes and effects than teasing them apart and articulating enough to make us question our individual place inside such a system, which is what I think it really wants to do.
Playwright Lauren Ferebee lit enough of a powder keg to draw a spirited and gifted cast who all champion her ideas and meet the formidable challenge of expressing them head-on. I hope they continue to work on Somewhere Safer and I look forward to its future development.
Preview: Interviews with Artists from Somewhere Safer
We're asking artists from each show to answer questions about themselves and their work to help our readers get a detailed advance picture of the festival:
All About My Show · DeborahWolfson (Director)
- Complete this sentence: My show is the only one in FringeNYC that...?
...speaks to the most urgent questions of our time. That sounds very grand and dramatic, but the issues of Somewhere Safer are ones that spill across the front page again and again and again: the role of violence in our society, what it means to change the world, how to be heard. - What do you think this show is about? What will audiences take away with them after seeing it?
Somewhere Safer looks at what it means to be an active American citizen-- both the privileges and the responsibilities-- and how we relate to power, especially women. Additionally, we see many characters grapple with the question of how to best honor the dead. [Perhaps now is a good time to say it's also quite funny.] I would hope the audience takes these questions with them as they leave theater and debate them at the bar afterwards amongst friends, because they're questions that deserve the attention. - Who are some of the people who helped you create this show, and what were their important contributions to the finished product?
Lauren is the person without whom none of us would be here. She's a tremendously gifted writer: warm, curious, funny, and intelligent. I'm quite honored to be on this journey with her. This show was fostered with On the Square Productions through a developmental reading series. Through a series of living room reads culminating in two public staged readings, we would come back to the piece monthly with a room full of smart and talented actors and producers offering responses and thoughts. It's an amazing way to work through a piece: it let Lauren dream big and brought so many gifted artists into the development process. - Tell us about the process you used to achieve your vision of this play in this production.
The main thrust has been on letting the language shine, focusing on clarity and flow within a non-linear structure and beautiful emotional truths that Lauren puts forward. - Are there any cautions or warnings you’d like to make about the show (e.g., not appropriate for little kids)?
Violence is a constant throughout the piece (both domestically in the form of terrorism and abroad in bombings and raids), and the themes don't lend themselves to a young child's interest.
Theater is Political · laurenferebee (Writer)
- Is this play political? Why or why not?
The play is absolutely political - the seed of it was a two-page monologue by a right-wing pundit about the French Revolution. for Each of the characters have deeply embedded political views and ideas that are integral to their lives and personalities. As they are, I think, for all of us, though we aren't always open about it. - Theater is a necessary ingredient in democratic societies. Do you agree or disagree, and why?
Yes, but it is more necessary and more risky in societies that are not democracies. De Tocqueville had a few interesting things to say about theater and democracy, how it is in some ways an inherently democratic institution, or an incitement to democacy. I don't know that that's always true - I don't find Broadway to be particularly "democratic" - but I think it's a nice idea. Who doesn't like a little AdT with their morning cereal? - Which political figure would like your show the best: Chris Christie, Hilary Clinton, Rand Paul, or Al Sharpton?
Hilary Clinton, certainly. Somewhere Safer is a play that explores women and how they interact with power, particularly in a society whose default discourse perspective is the white male. Plus, there's a First Lady hopeful in the play, so perhaps she would identify...? - Who do you think has the right idea about theater: Brecht, Artaud, Shakespeare, or Aristotle?
Is there a right idea about theatre? I mean, I'm personally very attached to Shakespeare because I'm an absolute sucker for the sound and rhythm of language. But I don't know. I think at its core theatre is a hopeful enterprise and when it works, your heart soars and sings and you experience a profound connectedness with the human experience. Theories are just different ways of getting at how we make those moments happen. - Is it more important to you to write about people who have the same political/social views as you, or people who have entirely different ones?
Different ones, definitely. The characters in Somewhere Safer span the political spectrum, from extreme right-wing news pundits to left-wing radicals. One of my aims in the play was to really draw out how our personal beliefs are just that, and government - great government - is a negotiation of those beliefs and a commitment to a social good that exceeds the individual, that looks to the spirit of a nation or a constituency. We must see and listen to voices of all kinds and understand their profound humanity in relation to our own.
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