The New York City Fringe has made a number of its shows available as livestreams, and for the section successive year I am reviewing a selection of them.
Murder ballads and death songs have always been big business, from the old folk tunes to modern pop classics. Often recounting acts of violence against women, Eve Blackwater has taken these snuff songs to add colour to her Brokeneck Girls – Murder Ballad Musical.
Brokeneck Girls are a folk trio led by Blackwater (guitar) with Jeannir Skelly (banjo) and Kendra MacDevitt (violin). They are strong, sardonic, and steely as they accompany the drama proper, which references various women mentioned in the ballads.
With a steampunk vibe and a modern swagger, the Brokeneck Girls band is the ‘house band’ in the 1890s Tofana’s Tavern, run by Babs (Olivia Whicheloe). She’s the conduit for chat and confidence, confession, and comfort.
When Lady Arlin (Alexandria Thomas) and the Sheriff (Emily Ross) arrive, the situation becomes a lockdown at the latter’s instruction because, you remember, Women Aren’t Safe.
Tonight there’s going to be a public hanging for the murderer of the ‘Knoxville Girl’, and a dangerous man is on the loose. In the attitude of the women of the play, sad to be denied their evening’s ‘entertainment’, the sentiments of songs both traditional and original in this show are mirrored.
Today’s tabloid press continues to provide lurid details of murder and violence to satisfy the baying mob. Many of us still know the words of ‘Tom Dooley’. Certainly most of us know Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue’s ‘Wild Rose’.
In Blackwater’s script and songs, there is a sense of fun, black though it may be. These are women who don’t suffer fools gladly, who celebrate those who fight back and revenge their abuse.
Michael Hagin’s direction adds an easy energy to a show designed to inform as well as entertain. At times, as in ‘Crybaby Creek’ about Black women raped and made pregnant by members of Ku Klux Klan, the smile has to stop.
A very powerful 90 minutes, which holds up a candle to the misogynistic and racist violence that still blights our world. I liked the idea of a female sheriff literally ‘wearing the pants’ and not needing protection.
Find out more about the New York City Fringe here.
Find out more about Brokeneck Girls here.
***.5
Image credit: Adrian Buckwater