Daniel Beaty’s “Emergency,” Much More Than Entertainment
By Qian Yu 3-24-2013
Michael Lamont/ Courtesy Photo
Performer and writer Daniel Beaty brings his powerful, explosive solo show “Emergency” to ArtsEmerson at the Cutler Majestic Theater in downtown Boston.
The 80-minute show is coherent and strong with ironic arias, vocals and dance.
The show opened up with a slave ship emerging in front of the Statue of Liberty.
Beaty said, “We interrupt this broadcast to bring you this breaking news report. A slave ship has just been sent out of the Hudson River in front of the Statue of Liberty.”
Beaty’s inspiration for “Emergency“ comes from the exploration of the concept of freedom. His performance asks questions about how free we are and if we are free to love, free to be fully expressed and free to follow our dreams. To answer these questions, Beaty portrayed 43 African-American characters by imitating their voices, movements and personalities.
“They all fight to be free,” said Beaty at the end of the show, explaining how he adopted humorous element in his solo and moved it to a more profound, heart-felt experience.
All the characters Beaty portrayed span different socio-economic groups, sexualities and ages. Directed with full passion to the audience, all the characters relate to particular people in reality.
Despite all this, what really blew everyone’s mind and wowed at the end was Beaty’s “Knock, knock.” It was a game a black young boy would play every morning with his father.
The young boy would jump into his father’s arms and say, “Good morning, Papa,” and the father would tell his son that he loved him. This game continued until the day the “knock” never came and the young boy’s mother took him to a prison with “high rusty gates.” It was not until he saw his papa sitting behind a window, trying to knock on it to play the game they used to play every morning, when his mother pulled him away before his papa could even say a word.
“Knock, knock.” “Who’s there?” “We are!” Beaty’s mixed African-American’s pain, sorrow, hopes all together, encouraging to people to walk with the power to change this world, straight ahead to where they want to end up.
He did a fine job with his dance moves, burst out in occasional anger with irritated eyes and a sweaty face.
However, the ultimate goal of “Emergency” is to remind us to throw off the shackles and embrace freedom. As Beaty says we all deserve to “fight to be free.”