REVIEW: Experimental ‘Ludlow, 1914’ ambitious, but too often confusing
On April 20, 1914, about 12 miles northwest of Trinidad, two women and 11 children suffered fiery deaths, the end of a long and acrimonious struggle among the Colorado National Guard, the Rockefeller-owned Colorado Fuel & Iron Co. guards and striking coal miners.
What came to be known as the Ludlow Massacre was “the culminating act of perhaps the most violent struggle between corporate power and laboring men in American history,” wrote historian Howard Zinn.
Maybe, though, you haven’t heard about it. TheatreWorks artistic director Murray Ross admitted as much in his program notes for “Ludlow, 1914,” which runs through Sept. 28. The inherent human drama and the mysterious lack of general awareness about the bloody fight spurred Ross to approach the LIDA Project, a Denver art collective focused on experimental live performance. Member Brian Freeland wrote (through six weeks of workshopping with the players) and directed the work.
The result is unexpected, confusing, and sometimes poetic.
A work that was “finished” not long before its premiere last week, “Ludlow, 1914” is very much in the kitchen- sink stage of conception. While intriguing, the 90-minute work generally proved to be an energetic intellectual exercise rather than an emotionally engaging evening of theater. Which might have worked had there been fewer elements and had the ones that remained lined up a little more clearly.
“This story, this play, ‘Ludlow, 1914,’ unfolds over a single day,” actor Terry Burnsed tells the audience at the beginning, “the 24 hours leading up to April 20, 1914.”
You’ll run into quite a lot on the way there, though, including Gen. William Palmer; an allegorical tale of an “Earth monster;” direct-address instruction on the reasons for strikes; a lesson in how coal is created; at least one pantomime; and cartoonish fisticuffs between capitalism (the wonderfully gleeful Tom Paradise) and socialism (Margaret Kasahara, a bright and committed standout in the show). Production designer Steve Deidel’s awesome, multilevel stage practically undulates, drums beat and projected imagery appears, now and then, on the flats that flank the stage.
Throw in the self-referential nods to the machinery of making theater itself (“Go, light cue 20,” shouts an actor early on), and it can be a lot to process.
It’s all provocative, but ultimately distancing – and lacking the satisfying snap when all the disparate storytelling elements fall into place and you understand their importance.
That said, there are memorable moments. While the 18 actors take no obvious single identity (except for Paradise, who plays a Rockefeller-like figure perched above the stage), each were convincing – playing company lackeys and, then, miners, or union organizers, immigrants, the disgruntled poor and myopic wealthy, on and on.
Some tightly choreographed performances by the six child actors provided some of the most striking – and eerie – moments in the play. Puzzling, too. They were some of the most focused turns by young performers I’ve ever seen.
Musicians Travis Duncan, Jeremiah Walter and Erik Brevik grounded “Ludlow, 1914.” The music, which surely was part of life in the real Ludlow, was folksy and heartfelt, perfectly on point throughout. Better yet, the musicians delivered fear and anger and confusion as convincingly as any actor on that stage.
The most powerful part of “Ludlow, 1914” I’ll remember for a long time. A handful of the adult actors somberly described their deaths in the mines, the grim prospects of being left a widow and other stark realities of life in a CF&I mining camp. In that passage, the human cost was clear. Not emotional, but palpable. Haunting. Moving.
I could have used a little more of that kind of connection to the men, women and children who struggled to survive. A little less of the multiple layers of more abstract storytelling.
Theatreworks “Ludlow, 1914” at the Dusty Loo Bon Vivant Theater Sunday September 14, 2014. Photo by Jeff Kearney
Theatreworks “Ludlow, 1914” at the Dusty Loo Bon Vivant Theater Sunday September 14, 2014. Photo by Jeff Kearney
Theatreworks “Ludlow, 1914” at the Dusty Loo Bon Vivant Theater Sunday September 14, 2014. Photo by Jeff Kearney