Review: ‘The Prohibition Project: Ilium Was’
TROY, N.Y. >> If you want to know the difference between telling a story and seeing a story, find your way to Collar Works on River Street in Troy.
There you will experience the immersive theater event, “The Prohibition Project: Ilium Was.” It’s presented by Troy Foundry Theatre and continues Thursday through Sunday. It will transport you back to the 1920s.
On the ground level of this former industrial building, a group of extremely talented actors creates a number of scenes, many happening simultaneously, showing people who endured in a corrupt and unfeeling society. Through those highly stylized moments, you get a feel for a country that has lost its identity.
You will meet the politician who promises to make the city great again, a corrupt police captain, a blues singer, an Irish immigrant who was prepared by abuses of the IRA for the tough political life in Troy. There is a union leader, a young scrappy boxer, a Rabbi, a mill worker and, of course, a gangster — amongst others.
You meet them individually and at other times see them interact with each other, mostly in two-person scenes. You hear the anti-Semitic slurs, threats to immigrants and the pleas for better working conditions and equality for all. And you understand that though set in the 1920s, the play is about today,
This is not a linear theatrical experience. It’s like attending an art exhibit. Andy Warhol comes to mind as he was the artist who most raised the act of voyeurism to the level of art.
In an art exhibit, and with “Prohibition,” you choose the piece or scene that interests you. When finished, you observe and select another piece. You keep repeating the process until you have experienced the whole body of work. Each experience may expand the understanding of the other – or not. The goal is eventually you will have a sense for the whole.
To the degree that happens depends of the skill on the curator, who arranges the individual pieces. At Troy Foundry that person is Brenna Geffers, a theater artist who has extraordinary vision and a gift of creativity. This event is a marvel of coordination as her direction channels the chaotic nature of this type of simultaneous theater into a whole.
Besides being gifted in stagecraft, Geffers is a nurturer of talent. Individually, each member of the cast is compelling and when they work as a group there is a coordinated sense of purpose that is dynamic. Bear in mind, in this immersive style of presentation, the audience is often mere inches away from the face of the performer. The cast displays awesome focus and discipline.