It鈥檚 hard to believe, but the Belfry Theatre鈥檚 Spark Festival has reached the 10-year mark. This worthwhile annual endeavour aims to provide Victoria with smart, innovative, eclectic and, well 鈥 sparky theatre from across sa国际传媒.
Sound of the Beast, which has its final performance tonight at the Belfry, is among the most anticipated shows. Performed and written by Toronto鈥檚 Donna-Michelle St. Bernard, it鈥檚 a semi-autobiographical look at the city鈥檚 hip-hop culture and the uneasy relationship that can exist between people of colour and law enforcement.
Hip-hop aficionados might guess the title of St. bernard鈥檚 85-minute show tips its hat to Sound of da Police, the hard-driving single by Bronx rapper KRS-One. The song, about police brutality, features a notorious 鈥渨hoop whoop!鈥 refrain mimicking the sound of police sirens.
The squad-car whoop also features in Sound of the Beast. Police surveillance is a recurring theme in the show, essentially a collection of spoken word and rap. 鈥淗ave you ever been slow cruised?鈥 St. Bernard asks us ominously. She鈥檚 referencing the police practice of slowly driving by while unsmilingly checking pedestrians out.
A poet as well as a playwright (St. Bernard was a Governor-General鈥檚 drama award finalist) she describes the menacing whoop as a 鈥渕obile minaret鈥 鈥 an example of her deft wordplay.
As St. Bernard intends, it鈥檚 an eye-opening piece. Stalking an almost bare stage in red lace-up boots and a black hoodie, she brought the subject of racially motivated police oppression vividly to life at a Spark performance this week.
Law-enforcement surveillance lurks everywhere in Sound of the Beast. St. Bernard says undercover cops often surface at hip-hop shows, fooling no one with their AC/DC T-shirts and crew cuts. Another thread is the story of Tunisian rapper Weld El 15, who in 2013 was tossed in jail for two years for releasing the song titled (in English) Cops Are Dogs.
Sound of the Beast is no one-sided anti-cop rant. There鈥檚 some complexity in St. Bernard鈥檚 point of view. A sometime political activist, she recalled watching a policeman sweat under 65 pounds of riot gear at a political rally. At that point, St. Bernard stopped seeing him as a symbol of oppression and recognized him as a fellow human, asking his name and offering him water.
The approach worked 鈥 the cop introduced himself and even suggested that, 10 years ago, he would have joined her on the protest line.
Moments of nuance and irony within Sound of the Beast raise it above typical agitprop theatre. Tongue in cheek, St. Bernard describes the protest rally as a gathering intended to indicate 鈥測ou don鈥檛 like something.鈥
Elsewhere, she expresses her ambivalence at how, as a woman of colour, she sometimes receives preferential treatment from police, who pass her over in favour of targeting darker-skinned comrades.
While the show has strengths, not everything works. One wonders whether Sound of the Beast probes deeply enough. Heavy-handed law enforcement gets the brunt of St. Bernard鈥檚 outrage.
Yet surely unfair police conduct is symptomatic of deeper problems within society as a whole 鈥 something that鈥檚 not particularly investigated. As well, the show is sometimes disjointed, coming off as a mish-mash that would benefit from stronger narrative through-lines.
St. Bernard sings and raps to recorded music by Blunted Beatz. She鈥檚 a likeable, cheerfully profane performer able to create an intimate relationship with the audience. Those intrigued by the subject matter likely won鈥檛 be disappointed.
Also at the Spark Festival
鈥 Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story: Nominated for six Drama Desk Awards, including outstanding musical, this acclaimed show was inspired by the true story of how playwright Hannah Moscovitch鈥檚 grandparents came to sa国际传媒 in 1908. The show, starring Ben Caplan, is created by Moscovitch, Caplan and Christian Barry. It runs March 20 to 24.
鈥 Pathetic Fallacy: The twist to Anita Rochon鈥檚 show is that a different local actor stars each night. It explores the relationship between ancient weather gods and our current climate-change crisis. It runs March 19 to 23.
鈥 Good Morning, Viet Mom: Franco Nguyen wrote and performs this autobiographical show, which was a hit at the Toronto Fringe Festival. It鈥檚 a comedic look at a second-generation Canadian of Asian descent being raised by his single mother. Final show is March 16.