SELDOM SCENE THEATRE PRESENTS
A World Premiere
PERFORMANCE DETAILS
Beyond
Genre
Situated at the intersection of poetry, sound, art and experimental cinema, Into The Breach is a dramatic audiovisual poem that pushes the boundaries of polyphonic narration through overlapping voices and visual text, often from dissonant perspectives, immersing audience members in a multisensory verbal storm and challenging them to sort through colliding truths to interpret the story.
By applying layers of synchronized chaos, Into The Breach deviates from the path of what's expected by requiring one's mind to process images and information in unaccustomed ways-all geared toward the ultimate goal of gleaning a meaningful message from the orchestrated madness.
The Story
The Story On a chilly December afternoon the serenity of a tranquil forest preserve is shattered by the scream of sirens, as emergency vehicles speed toward a rocky bluff overlooking a deep gorge which lies far below the precipitous ledge... but before we gaze down into the breach, we look back upon a little girl who sits in her room behind a closed door, along with her brother who cannot play with his sister yet is somehow compelled to play along.
His wheelchair only moves when she tells it to, which in turn moves him- but it does not move him to speak, for Joey's developmental disabilities have left him unable to speak or do anything at all, unable in every sense of the word. Unable even to think? Or does his unsearchable mind seek to know and be known by the parents who sister Jenny keeps locked outside the door, grownups who sit like severed limbs detached from their own hearts?
Jenny is searching as well, determined to find the Joey who she's convinced is hidden and sleeping like an unlit spark inside the chairbound rag doll encasing him, the undiscovered Joey who the severed-limb parents dismissed as non-existent long ago. But does the hidden Joey really want to be found? Are Jennie's unceasing efforts to awaken the captive Joey from the unending nightmare she believes his life to be even a greater torture to him than the unyielding confines of his metal chair? And if so, how can he express to her or to anyone his pain?
By blending the mixed elements of dramatic interpretation, video animation, original music and free verse into a synchronized chaos of sight and sound, Into The Breach endeavors to speak to those things which are inexpressible, and to pull back the curtains which conceal the inner lives of the troubled children and their equally troubled parents whose complicated and converging relationships have brought themselves and the sirens to the edge of the abyss. It is here where one may learn that it requires only a gentle push to learn the difference between flying and falling.
Tickets $12, Available At The Door.