The gentrification of Brooklyn may not be the most obvious topic for a one man show, but after seeing Taking Over at the Berkeley Rep, it makes perfect sense why Danny Hoch would spend ten years ruminating on how to make it happen. In Thursday's post-performance talk, Hoch said that he actually wrote the play in one weekend "as a solution to the headache" after all that time thinking about it. Running through February 10th, Taking Over provides an intimate look at the people of Brooklyn and their views on how things have changed, all roles played by Hoch who excels at character and accent portrayal.
This is the third of Hoch's one man shows. His credits also include being featured on HBO's Def Poetry and films War of the Worlds, Thin Red Line, Blackhawk Down. He founded the annual Hip-Hop Theater Festival in New York and he's a frequent writer of articles on hip-hop, race and culture. Listening to him speak as himself as well as in the myriad of roles in the play, it's clear he knows his theme. Directed by Tony Taccone, the pair developed a speed and tone for Taking Over that makes 90 minutes without an intermission fly by. The Berkeley crowd on the night I attended seemed to understand the challenges of gentrification. "This is happening in every city" and elsewhere, Hoch noted. "Farmers are being gentrified out of their homes."
A deeper look at the characters shows a Puerto Rican native Brooklyn resident, a French transplanted realtor, an African American home owner, a Jewish real estate developer, a Michigan born street pseudo-artist, a Dominican cab dispatch operator (my favorite), a Hip-Hop performer, and a New Yorker close to what one might assume is Hoch's persona. Each character has his/her unique traits and concerns, each is believable and each one's situation understandable. As Hoch said after the performance when asked which of these characters are ultimately to blame (or credit, depending on their points of view) for the gentrification, they are all responsible in some way. It's a stark topic, but Hoch does it the serious justice it deserves through the variety of perspectives.
I'll admit I expected some harsh realities being driven into the audience from this play, although I really didn't know quite how from what I read in advance. What I didn't expect was the natural, authentic, almost graceful quality the play had to it. By actually not driving the themes too hard, the play actually succeeds better I think at bringing its message through. The standing ovation Hoch received illustrated this poignantly.
From here, he plans to hone the work and ideally take it to the New York stage. But, he said in a frank and almost rueful tone, performing there is expensive due in part to the problem addressed in the play and to the tourist market demanding more productions that visitors consider more real to their assumptions of New York culture. "Theatre is toned down in New York for the American palate." He believes it will inevitably make it there somehow and I hope he's right. As one woman in the audience said at the conclusion of the post-performance discussion about theatre addressing social change: "it doesn't happen very often."
This show was so amazing. I'm going to see it again with my husband.
Posted by: Adige | January 28, 2008 at 02:59 PM