An overdue shout goes to Brooklyn Bodega and the Room Service Group for sending me to see this play a few weeks ago. The playwrite, DANNY HOCH, is a favorite of mine for his spoken word creativity. HOCH has written several plays that have been featured through Hip-Hop Project’s theatre works productions. I’m sure that you folks are familiar with his landmark piece ‘Jails, Hospitals and Hip-Hop’. DANNY HOCH is a true Hip-Hop voice and I was anxious to see his latest work.
‘Till The Break Of Dawn’ is the story of Hip-Hop heads that try to understand what the value of activism is within the artform and culture that they undeniably love to def. The play is set in the summer of 1991 and a group of Hip-Hop activists are making a trip to Cuba for a Hip-Hop festival. They imagine that there will be a great manifestaion of Hip-Hop’s true essence within the confines of a republic that has single-mindedly(and some say foolishly) rebuked the capitalist ideal that America espouses.
Bear in mind that I rarely define Hip-Hop as a culture because I believe it exists within the culture of American capitalism. As a result of being exploited by American capitalism Hip-Hop was borne, and today Hip-Hop exists hand in hand with American capitalism in the service of selling two dollars bottles of quarter water, car accessories, and whatever else the machine fabricates.
The group winds up on Cuban soil and to their dismay they realize that the strained relationship with the United States and the embargo imposed upon this tiny island are responsible for a quality of life that leaves much to be desired. The romantic aspect of communism quickly evaporates in front of these young people’s eyes. Nothing is more profound than when our protagonist has the fortune to meet with one of the many American dissidents living in Cuba. In a search for ASSATA SHAKUR the group turns up another woman who also came to Cuba after narrowly escaping her captivity here in the States.
It’s through the life experiences of this real freedom fighter that the group comes to realize the revolution wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Between the negative propaganda perpetuated by the U.S., and the revolutionary romanticsm retailed by the sellers of CHE GUAVARA t-shirts the group had an idealized imaginary Cuba. What the group eventually came to see is that Cuba was a waystation for people who only wanted to return to the U.S., their families and their former way of life. Cuba was not the final destination and now these folks were feeling the desperation of being trapped in their limbo.
The play was very active and from the gate it flowed like a Fu-Schnickens track. The characters were perfect stereotypical archetypes. Everyone played their roles well enough, but no one spoke to me as much as Dana, the character of the former escaped convict freedom fighting revolutionary. Towards the end of the play she delivered a monologue that essentially encapsulated the purpose of revolution. Love and work. Work is love. Love is hard work. Finally someone expresses the true nature of revolution. Wash, rinse and repeat.
The play could use a little editing in some areas to trim the fat as we say in the entertainment business, but essentially the work is enjoyable and refreshing. Hip-Hop needs us to support the alternative voices that speak against the commodification of the artform. DANNY HOCH’s play is one of those voices.
TILL THE BREAK OF DAWN
written and directed by DANNY HOCH
The Abrons Arts Center
466 Grand Street