There is energy in the air when you walk into a slam poetry reading, the venue for which Michael Brown is known. The question one had going into his Dec. 16 production “Poetry Off-Broadway” at Davis Square’s Jimmy Tingle’s Off-Broadway was: could Brown make the joint jump in a set production the way it jumps during his competitions?
“I’ve been doing competition stuff for so long that I believed it was time to bring it to the next level,” said Brown, the slam master at the Cantab Lounge in Cambridge. Brown said he was going in a new direction with this show. The next level is cooperative work within an ensemble. “As the group matures the idea will be to do more and more collaborative pieces.”
The Tingle theater has an intimacy that belies its 200 seats. When the lights go down, one sits like one would in the living room during a blackout. The voices called out from different angles and appointments in the hall. At times, the voices were like lone life-lines tossed out into the black ocean. At other times, the voices climbed on top of each other like rats as their hole filled with water.
The poetic voices came one after and another. The continuous stream of invective, rap, riff, scat, outrage, nostalgia represented the whole spectrum of human expression. The ensemble attempted, and to some degree realized Brown’s vision of poems and performance woven together to create a tapestry of poetry.
It is hard to select any one performer, or performance piece to focus on. But certainlv. Ryk McIntyre, a consummate and seasoned performer turned in several riveting performances. His sleazy, down and out characters had the audience crossing over from laughter to abject fear. McIntyre has a Tom Waits rasp, and uses his malleable face to excellent effect.
When Valerie Lawson portrayed her tomboyish, hockey playing childhood, she betrayed the freckled-faced girl in the mature woman.
Corrina Bain is a striking. tall-drink-of-water, young woman. Using razor sharp wit, and at times an acid tongue, Bain skewered the American dream, as well as the tyrannies of high school. Her take on married men and their long-suffering wives found an awkward resonance with the couples in the seats.
Other members of the ensemble included: Jeff Taylor, Todd Brunel, Chris O’Carroll, Tom Daley, Nicole Terez, Douglas Bishop, Krysten St. John and Alex Charalambides.
After the intermission the show lost some of its momentum. But given the energy and power of the first half, it should have been expected. Still, “Poetry Off-Broadway” was provocative and engaging production. Unlike too many other poetry readings I have attended, this show truly engaged the audience.
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