The New York City Fringe (formerly FRIGID Fringe Festival) ran until 18 Apr, and I chose a few of the livestreamed shows to review from the UK for the second successive year.
“A one-woman performance, written and performed by Kim Barke.
Under the scalpel gaze of Kim Barke, poet and former scientist who studied addiction with funding from NIDA, Blocks of Sensation bushwacks into the tragic irony of mothering an adult addict 27 years after leaving the lab.
This raw elegy, directed by Linda Mussmann, is an unflinching journey into the heart of human behavior and the meaning of truth. Witness the metamorphosis of shame into art.”
Kim Barke, speaking to All Arts in April, describes herself as a ‘non-actor’, her performance shaped by trusting her director Linda Mussmann to offer support and guidance.
Their teamwork shows in this very personal story that is delivered more as lecture than dramatic play as Barke explores queer mothering, adult addiction, and her own vulnerability and story.
It’s a pity we can’t see in this digital recording what Barke is writing on her flipchart, and the filming is very basic, to the point I couldn’t make out her facial expressions.
So we have her voice and body language, and thankfully, both are strong enough to get her point across.
Kim Barke is a poet, playwright and former scientist who lives near Hudson, NY. This is her first produced show as a playwright and as a performer.
Her research on opioid addiction in the 1990s at Albany College clearly informs her understanding, but when this comes close to home, into the home, it is very different from working on a hypothesis in the lab.
This is a fifty-minute show in which the writer/performer often seems to be asking questions of us and trying to find something or someone to blame.
So this is a bit of a life story, in which Barke’s first wife, her intellectual equal, comes and goes, and the son goes to live with his father. Another marriage, time alone, some bad dating choices.
Blocks of Sensation is very much in the confessional class of drama, and I wanted to have some point of reference for emotional or empathetical connection.
Sadly I didn’t find it in Barke’s account of her many romantic ups and downs, which received more early focus than she gave to her children.
The son is a strong character in this piece, and I wonder if this may be developed further into a drama in which he is depicted in some way (by voice, a puppet, or an invisible presence suggested by some prop associated with him)?
Ritual, imagination, experimentation. All are included in Barke’s show, as she explores the work she was funded to do in her life as scientist.
As she walks back and forward, her hands across her chest in a gesture of comfort and defence, she is opening up a wound which she would like to help heal, but knows will not without acceptance.
We cannot say to Kim Barke, “don’t write about your kids”. We cannot say to her, “it wasn’t your fault”. We might be able to say, as one of her advisors did, “don’t ever give up on your kids”. But whether we have the right to do so, I don’t know.
This show has also not been blocked with a digital stream in mind, as Barke is out of range of the camera entirely for the final moments.
Obviously, that means more of a separation between the work and those who are watching it.
Blocks of Sensation is a show which seeks to challenge and educate, and it does go quite a way to achieve both these aims.
But it isn’t really a piece of theatre, however much I applaud Barke the mother, the writer, and the scientist for creating this show and having the strength to share it with us.
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