Tale of 2Cities: An American Joyride on Multiple Tracks (Semiotext

by Heather Woodbury

From Brooklyn to Chavez Ravine, 50 years of New York and Los Angeles history collide in a mix of voices from three generations in this "living novel" by Heather Woodbury. In this second "living novel" by Heather Woodbury, 50 years of New York and Los Angeles history collide in a live mix spun by Manny, a young DJ, in his dead grandmother's Echo Park apartment. Flashing back to 1957, when Brooklyn lost its home-team and LA's Chavez Ravine was razed to build the Dodgers a new stadium, Woodbury enacts a séance among three generations of interwoven characters on both coasts whose lives were changed forever by this single act of urban redevelopment. Writing about a performance of 2Cities in Time Out, David Cote "Think of the expansive social criticism of John Dos Passos's USA tempered by the loopy humanity of Lily Tomlin." Using her trademark meta-mix of voices, Woodbury links psychic devastation of Brooklyn fans after the desertion of the Dodgers with the fate of Chavez Ravine, where Mexican Americans in a thriving community were forced to sell their homes to make room for the new stadium. Toggling between 1957 and the present, 2Cities swoops through cities and the minds of a miniseries-worth of major and minor characters. From the rise of Senator Joseph McCarthy to the fall of the Twin Towers, 2Cities channels a lost universe of lives otherwise erased, in a style that owes as much to DJ Shadow as it does to John Steinbeck.

240 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2006

Reviews

[Jessegeiger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Almost more of a novel than a play, this is an incredibly imaginative look at the more ethereal ties between LA and NYC. Woodbury blends monologue based storytelling with a compelling sense of theatricality, which is as much at the heart of this play as the story itself.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will admit that I pretended I had not enjoyed this play because I wanted to agree with a cute boy.

Really, though, I liked it a lot. As always, with the plays I've read for my 21st Century Drama class, I have puzzled over how it would be produced. With this one, though, I am almost sure - it is better read than produced. If the accents can't be reproduced perfectly, if the idea of Manny mixing together scenes from New York and LA can't be clear and effective, then so much would be lost.

There were several reasons I really enjoyed this play:
-I love slice-of-life stuff. I think tiny, supposedly insignificant moments in people's lives are the most beautiful and the most interesting.
-It was important and relevant but not sad. It was so refreshing to read a play where bad things happen but it's somehow not a tragedy, where it is far from fluffy but also doesn't make me want to slit my wrists.
-It was, in a word, innovative. I've never read a play with this many characters, with this many voices, with this much authenticity.

That all having been said, I don't know if I could watch Heather Woodbury in Sybil-mode perform this for 5 hours.