I'm not performing 08/07/2013 - 9:45am

I went to see Elysium Blues last night with my homegirl, and I couldn't pronounce the name. Or im pretending like I'm not paying enough attention to pronounce the name because I'm scared of shows based on Shakespeare and Greek things. I loved Greek and Roman myths as a child and I got briefly into Egyptian mythology before I went through my Black Power phase. I started hating on "the classics" and complaining about their irrelevance. But Elysium Blues sent up the standard in a thoughtful and sharp way, and as an overall concept, it was bomb. OK, now I say the overall concept was bomb but there were things I didn't like and I'm going to tell you about them now, all at once. The costumes were uninspired. The amp was too loud. Some of the delivery of some of the text was not what's up. It ended with a weird loop back to things that happened in the beginning that was too tidy for my taste. OK that's it. These are real criticisms, but they are also what keeps this show in the Fringe realm. Now, everyone is freaking out over the music in this show which is worthy. Eric Mayson and Rachel Austin are on fire. The cast supports the music and Laura Robards is especially pleasing when she breaks in to sing her story. The music is great, the music is great, yea yea it really is! But this piece is deep on another level and its one time I was glad I read the program. Ricardo Vasquez, in his director's notes, writes "Elysium Blues offers a voice to the women of this story who are victims of rape, abuse, kidnapping, and forced imprisonment in order to examine why these violent acts populate Greek mythology." I thought the most powerful aspect has to do with the way music was used to bring remembering, and that life in the afterworld involves living with all of our memories, as painful as many of them are. Persephone struggled with wanting to forget as a way to deal with some BS that Hades prolly put her through, all the while trying to be the queen holding down the top MC status. That's how I saw her endless talking in rhyme, like an MC hogging the mic in a cipher. I listened to the structure of how the rhymes were created and thought Hip Hop, not Dr. Seuss. Rebecca Wall deserves respect for holding it down, but I would be feeling a fierce female MC like The Lioness spitting those lyrics or a vocalist/lyricist like Alicia Steele who could transition as Persephone's fortress starts to crumble. OK, I not I'm not allowed to re-cast the show or tell people the art they are supposed to make - my bad. But I did have to look some things up, well, maybe I didn't have to but I was feeling that scary feeling I get around "the classics," when I don't know every little thing that's being referred to. I can't help it, I gotta look it up. So, I checked shmoop.com and got the rundown on the myth and found out by a little more digging (wikipedia:) Now that I got that refresher I don't feel like I needed it - I know that Greek myth provided a structure that Jessica Huang abstracted and remixed in a touching way, and she made a snap of a commentary on abuse, healing, memory and the role of music and song in all of that. As a griot I can appreciate. I I I I I remember... and now a funny anecdote about how not to have a good date: We arrive at the Rarig X box office and there's a half eaten Jimmy Johns laying in front of the table. I'm like "whose sandwich?" and nobody says anything. The JJ's sits there while we get our tickets. I go to get seats and there's the sandwich, next to a cute girl in a cute dress. "Hi Hi!" the sandwich says. I'm like "Oh, that was your sandwich. 'lol'" and the girl says "we both have sandwiches but I was being respectful." Of course I sit next to them. "Hay Ms. Sarge" the sandwich is calling me Ms. Sarge so I know this person maybe a little bit "do you have anything in the Fringe?" 'Nope, I'm not performing,' i get to say. After the show we all are walking out together. The sandwich somehow puts himself next to me and one person away from his cute dress theater mate. I ask him what he thought of the show, and he starts talking for about 2 minutes as we cross the street and his date doesn't. He finishes telling me what he thought and she's walking away. "Oh! Oh! Did you park over there?!" he yells and has to run after her. and finally, the stats: Poc# - enough, finally enough to not have to count pik# - enough of that too.