Jay LaPrete
“Your mortgage has been securitized.” “We don’t currently
own that risk.” These are just two of the lines in House/Divided, the techno extravaganza about “the housing crisis”
in both the literal and metaphorical sense of the expression. Ticker tapes run,
derivatives are created and cutting edge financial instruments embody the total
alienation of man from the objects of his creation. House/Divided is inspired by The Grapes of Wrath and as the financial crisis spins out of control,
depression scenes from the Steinbeck classic provide the undercurrent. If
the division of labor epitomized Marx’s notion of how industrialization
deracinated workers, then House/Divided
portrays a financial system that is not just schizophrenic, but on the verge of
multiple personality disorder. The form of the play is one of
disembodiment. There is relatively little interaction between the varying
actors. Instead they perform both their present day renditions and their
depression era set pieces in an intentionally fragmentary manner. Their
performances might be outtakes from a film. House/Divided
is not seamless, intentionally. One of the journalistic curiosities of the
production is that it continually alludes to The Bank of America which is
currently being sued for 1 billion dollars by the federal government for
alleged fraud perpetrated on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by its Country Wide Financial Unit. Either
the citation was the result of brilliant last minute adlibbing by the writers
(Moe Angelos and James Gibbs) and director Marianne Weems or it’s a reflection
of the fact amidst the current upheavals artists are the ones who see the
writing on the wall. The company which performs House/Divided significantly calls itself The Builder’s Association.
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Friday, October 26, 2012
House/Divided at BAM
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