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Disclaimer:
The reviewers' opinions are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of TheatreLouisville.org. |
Peer Reviews Fabric, Flames,
and Fervor: Girls of the Triangle Reviewed by Jane Mattingly Entire contents copyright © 2009 Jane Mattingly. All rights reserved.
The longest fifteen minutes of one's life seem to be those dragging moments at the end of the workday right before the weekend, where the clocks seem to be broken because their ticking has slowed to a sluggish stroll. The people can feel their fingers dragging the computer mouse arrow to "shut down" and hear the emphatic slam of their filing cabinet drawers, when they can leave their nice air-conditioned offices and enjoy a happy-hour beer. Now just imagine that feeling, but take away the nice computers, the air-conditioning, the desk, the sticky notes and the free coffee, and replace it with sewing machines shoved side-by-side in a hot, loud room surrounded by women speaking a dozen different languages breathlessly, murmuring to one another their plans for the short and long-awaited weekend. Fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes was all it took for a fire to kill 146 workers who were locked in, mostly immigrant women, at the Triangle Waist Company Factory in New York City on March 25, 1911. Fabric, Flames, and Fervor is an original play developed by the Looking for Lilith Theatre Company, which gives a historically accurate and artistically presented account of this event. The six-member, all-female cast of Lauren Argo, Vanessa Molden, Graham Pilotte, Carolyn Purcell, Samantha Watzek and Shannon Woolley was strong; each actor met the challenge of the script and believed in what she was saying and enacting. They appeared to adopt Italian, Russian, Polish, German and Irish accents with ease, able to switch quickly from one accent to another, as they each played different roles throughout the play. The actors were not only strong vocally but also physically, especially when they would have to suddenly switch genders, putting on a coat or a hat to represent a man, and adjusting their bodies accordingly. They operated strongly, individually and as an ensemble. The play, based on actual records of interviews with survivors of the fire, incorporated several different artistic elements that intertwine to paint this tragic picture for the audience. The first element was the use of mime, which I thought was very effective. There was not a single sewing machine onstage. There didn't need to be. The actors performed exquisitely choreographed "dances" that adapted the robotic rhythms of the workers, sometimes in unison, and sometimes at different times, different rates or different "dances" altogether. There were also courtroom scenes that, according to Trina Fischer, were based on actual testimonies from the Triangle Factory Fire trials. In these scenes especially, the actors impressively switched from character to character. There were scenes of the factory life before the fire — conversations had and friendships made — and there were also scenes where each actor's primary character narrated a letter that she wrote to a loved one. Finally, the biggest zingers were the scenes where the actors named off every single person known to have died in the fire. This truly made it real for the audience. Overall, I felt that this production was a nice balance of art, history and tribute. In Ellis' director's notes, she describes how her journey with this production began, and how she "realized that tragic as this history is, it also had the potential to be realized theatrically." Theatre can be one of the best ways to preserve history, because the actors and the audience are truly reliving the events. This play is an excellent example, and the audience members are required to use their imaginations when seeing this production, because it is only fair to the actors who are truly seeing the flames, using the sewing machines, or trying to make a living in this foreign country. I left the theater not only having learned something, but having felt it. I may or may not have learned of this event in my history class, but it obviously hadn't resonated with me enough to even remember it. However, after seeing this show, I'll never forget it.
Both of the Friday performances (March 27 and April 3) will include community talk backs afterward about labor right's issues.
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