Beneath the Surface
April 2nd, 2008
By Sage Dahlen
Photo by Bruce Silcox
As lids stretch down, eyelash meeting eyelash, peace falls over an audience hidden in darkness to the sound of steady drumming. Amidst chants of “rain, rain” echoing between the figures on stage, one might forget that this is only a play.
But is it?
A whirl of top hats, hard hats, cell phones and dancing sewer pipes might suggest otherwise. Booming announcements followed by uproarious applause, monsters made of plastic bottles, and the little bags of popcorn provided for each audience member should make it clear.
Beneath The Surface, the most recent mainstage performance at In The Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre in south Minneapolis, was not “just” anything.
The performance, themed after a big top circus, was the second episode in a performance trilogy entitled Invigorate the Common Well.
The aim of the trilogy is, among other things, to promote awareness of our local water system and the idea that water is a shared resource. Additionally, it encourages people to be grateful for water, which Heart of the Beast Artistic Director Sandy Spieler refers to as “a precious gift.”
Although this is a serious subject, Beneath The Surface does not portray it strictly in that way. While there were moments when the singsong delivery made the production seem torn between artistic expression and communicating a message, the end product was harmonious
Watching water travel from a cloud through a series of human induced pollutants makes human impact on natural resources so blatant that it is almost hard to watch.
A recent showing gathered a crowd, half of whom were children who laughed and clapped while unwittingly learning the intricacies of the water cycle and the Minneapolis sewer pipe system.
In addition to the play, small workshops afterward educated attendees about agriculture, industry, the Gulf of Mexico’s Dead Zone, and how water plays a crucial part in all of these things.
Watching water travel from a cloud through a series of human induced pollutants makes human impact on natural resources so blatant that it is almost hard to watch. But this is not even the half of it.
Since 1992, World Water Day has been held on March 22 in order to increase awareness of the water crisis that plagues countries worldwide. What crisis you ask? Currently 2 billion people lack access to safe water, and over 2.5 billion are without sanitation, according to the Human Development Report for 2006.
Despite daunting figures like this, and unfortunately many others, Heart of the Beast is working towards big goals with small, determined steps. Among the list of the initiatives for the Invigorate the Common Well series is to, “Connect our local drinking water experience with the large issues facing global water quality, consumption, conservation, and ownership,”
The third episode in the series will be a dedication ceremony for the theater’s new drinking fountain. The all-day family festival will take place on Saturday, July 26, and will feature live music, performances, and art activities. In the meantime, Heart of the Beast has dedicated a portion of its website to water resources. These can be found at http://hobt.org/mainstage/invigorate/resources.html.
“I found something in the river!” a cast member cried. And when the rest ask him what it was, he responded, his eyes wide with amazement: “A new way of thinking.” And hopefully, he is not the only one.
