Immersive and site-specific shows are hot right now, and “City Council Meeting” hits both of those sweet spots. Devised by Mallory Catlett, Jim Findlay and Aaron Landsman — all regulars on the New York experimental scene — the piece introduces audiences to the joys and frustrations of local administration in the US.
Think of it as a civics class jointly taught by the drama club and the AV kids, with a live feed of the proceedings shown on two screens for a documentary-like whiff of municipal TV action.
Billed as an exercise in “performed participatory democracy,” the show lets audience members choose the part they’d like to play: Councilors and speakers read lines from cue cards, while supporters stand up and clap in support of their positions and bystanders simply listen.
What they’re privy to are actual agenda items discussed at meetings around the country — the awarding of a plaque to a former commissioner in Bismarck, ND; the discovery of disgusting waste near a playground in Portland, Ore.; the fight over who’s responsible for paying drainage fees in Houston.
That last is a lot more interesting than you’d expect, but just as you start getting an idea of what’s going on, the show switches to another city. It never stays in one place long enough to explore any issue, and we don’t have the information necessary to understand local power plays.
After a short recess — that is, intermission — we return for a shorter segment focusing on New York City’s education issues. A recent performance featured Manhattan councilwoman Gale A. Brewer and real local high school kids, who delivered well-meaning but stilted (and scripted) speeches through an echoey PA system. That, at least, was painfully authentic.