On November 2nd, 2004 millions of Americans more so than any other time in recent history went out to their local firehouses, schools, government centers and exercised their right to vote. In what was hailed as, "the most important election in history" we learned what we might have already known (whether we were aware or not) – that this country is made of more parts and places than we can begin to imagine and nothing is as obvious as it seems.
Rising Circle Theater Collective`s production on "Pulling the Lever", co-written by Sanjit De Silva and Deepa Purohit and directed by Rod Bowen played these very themes and perhaps did the most groundbreaking thing of all – raised more questions than answers.
The production opens up with the orderly procession of voices, voices of the cast of characters the audience is about to meet, and turns into an almost organized chaos as they all start to speak at once over and under one another. What could have been just another cookie cutter representation of what "America" is made up of, with stereotypical stock characters and token minorities, is made painfully real because these people, these voices are all too familiar because they are real.
The production is made up of dozens of interviews conducted over the summer of 2004 following "Fahrenheit 9/11" and Abu Ghraib prison scandal. The result is "Pulling the Lever", a cross-section of America which includes an Upper East mother of two and a Republican, an Ecuadorian immigrant coffee shop manager who is working to put his children through private school, a professional Jewish Gay man and a Middle Eastern scholar, to name a few. The ensemble production is supported by stellar performances by all the actors and while the characters mainly speak in monologues the seamless feel of a scene is apparent and moves the play along at an engaging pace. Some of the actors play more than one role often the polar opposite of the one you just saw them as.
"Pulling the Lever" came about as more of a blessed accident as the producers will tell you. "We (Rising Circle) were going to produce ‘The Laramie Project` when the rights were pulled. Rod and I knew we wanted to produce something in the same style, so we talked about people and voting. It almost turned out to be a gift - to be able to do an original piece," said Deepa Purohit, co-founder of the collective. The writers, director and producers spent the summer of 2004 pulling together interviews, organizing transcripts, workshoping the pieces with actors until the final piece was complete.
What really seems to stick out after watching the production is how while the characters may seem to have some obvious political leanings, the audience is still not completely sure one way or the other what happens when the actually pull the lever. This was intentional almost according to lead writer Sanjit De Silva. "We wanted to start off on a personal level. We wanted (the audience) to know these people before you knew their politics."
This reviewer happened to see the production the day after election, which was especially poignant because in many ways the audience is in on a secret that the characters aren`t, as the De Silva likes to put it.
"Pulling the Lever" run through Saturday, November 6th and is worth seeing after the election, perhaps even more so. "I hope the audience sees that people are more than their political parties, that their history and life experience play into their choices whether you agree with them or not," said Rod Bowen, director and Co-Founder of the Collective. De Silva echoed that, "I hope they walk away with a better understanding of points of view they might not agree with...and see how complex people`s lives are." Purohit has her own wish. "I want them to walk away confused and uncertain in a good way. I think the best theater is when you walk out with more questions."
Pulling the Lever stars: Debargo Sanyal, Matt Pendergast, Lethia Nall, A-Men Rasheed, Tijuana Ricks, Antonio G. Del Rosario, Samir Younis, Catherine Jhung, Ragini Shah and Don Nahuku and is playing at the Wings Theater, 154 Christopher Street, New York until November 6th.
Ticket information can be found on Rising Circle Theater Collective web site (www.risingcircle.org).