Show: 32
Category: Storytelling / Historical content / Political content
By: Three Second Memory
Created by: Bruce D. Manning
Location: Open Eye Theatre
Summary: Stories from Operation Metro Surge, based on interviews and testimony from people who lived it.
Highlights: There are (unsurprisingly) several shows in this year's Minnesota Fringe that are directly about, or reference, Operation Metro Surge, as artists react to the violence and terror on our streets for several months over the winter. But this is the only one I've seen that compiles the voices from dozens of people who lived it. Witnesses, lawyers, immigrants, neighbors, it presents a full and intimate picture. Co-writers Bruce Manning (who was in Uprising Theatre's production of the docuplay The Laramie Project, to which this piece bears a resemblance) and David Hellstrom, have constructed a compelling story out of dozens of interviews, interweaving the stories in a way that tells a cohesive story. A cast of 13 reads the words of the real people, some of them with great emotionality that makes us feel they are those people. They're dressed in black, with a prop or costume piece that hints at the character. In a particularly moving part of the piece, they place white shoes around the stage as they talk about someone who was taken, representing the ICE Ghost Shoes Project, which has placed these white shoes as art displays around the city in locations where people who were taken. I'd never heard of this project, but it instantly reminded me of the shoe memorial on the Danube River in Budapest which I visited last fall, and it turns out was an inspiration for this project. Seeing all these empty shoes, in both art installations and in this show, is very sobering and brings the victims to life in a tangible way. Stories from the Surge is an affecting and effective way to share the real stories of what happened on our streets some six months ago, and which continues around the country in small and big ways.
