Disclaimer: If spelling errors, strange placements of commas and hyphens upset you I apologize for my inability to retain that part of my education.
In my opinion “Must Don’t Whip ”˜Um ” was a solidly entertaining, genuine and definitely worth seeing if you don’t have some dramatic adversity to hippies or Natalie Merchant.
The story was told from the perspective of a girl named Mary whose mother, Cameron Seymour, had abandoned her by running away Morocco to join a seemingly cultish Sufi order. As a product of the early 70’s and the hippy sub-culture I know several people with an almost identical story. I spent part of my childhood on a Sufi commune and my father did take off for long periods of times although he always came back. He used almost the exact same words as Cameron Seymour upon his departure, “by leaving to follow my truth/spiritual calling I am teaching you to follow yours. ” A very lame yet honest excuse for not contacting your children for a year. With all this personal experience with the subject matter I think the storyline and characters were believable and cohesive, another quality you do not often find in performance art.
Why I liked “Must Don’t Whip ”˜Um ”:
1. It was refreshingly un-hip. It didn’t seem to be trying to fit in a genera or style, therefore it didn’t; this is what made it interesting and different. There is nothing more tiresome the trying to be hip or current, trendy is the word. She didn’t name drop people, places, things or anything else to make the piece seem intelligent, in fact every time there was an opportunity for this she opted out, even seemed to be mocking that ego driven need in so many artist.
2. She mentioned God/Allah many times in an honest and genuine way.
Something I have never seen done in such a genuine way in any performance art piece ever. If god is mentioned it usually satirically, over acted, or some babbling journalistic rant. This is one example of a very un-hip thing that I liked about the piece.
3. Usually when there is video involved in a multi media piece it tends to consume the viewer. That was not the case. The technological aspect of this piece was integrated and balanced; the transitions were seamless from one medium to the next.
4. The dynamic: It didn’t start with a bang and then slowly wither and it didn’t slowly work it way into a crescendo. It had a mature and organic shape.
5. The hardcore overweight partying manger Burnt was my favorite character. He was Cameron’s ex-lover and the father of Mary. I loved this character and could have used twice as much of him.
6. The female drummer was hot and hit the drums well.
7. Cynthia had a very interesting demeanor and face which exaggerated her ability to be intimate with the audience.
8. The cohesive storyline. I know I am repeating myself, but this is rarity in performance art, rock operas and regular operas for that matter.
Why I didn’t liked “Must Don’t Whip ”˜Um ”:
It took a while to warm up to it and even then it did not move me in any profound way. I didn’t like Cynthia’s voice. It was so typical female singer songwriter. She sang with the timbre of a less developed Natalie Merchant and with other trendy and typical vocal inflections and over used song-writer style vibrato. I was hoping her lyrics would make up for it, but I found the first two songs really boring. They weren’t bad they were just so uninteresting, words and filler. I was afraid that all of the musicians, horn and string arrangements, film and interesting theatrical interludes would not be enough to make up for the mediocre songs. Then came “Open Door ”, the third song. The lyrics were good, so I started having hope and loosening up. The 4th song was also boring, but the rest of the music was great. I don’t understand her choice to start of the set with such bland musical material. Cynthia is clearly talented her spoken text was very interesting, the story was interesting, and most of her songs were very good, but why couldn’t she have started with a bang. This is why it took me a while to relax and open up as an audience member. By the end of the piece I was immersed, drawn in and impressed with the work.
I don’t really have much to say about the music. It was a perfect mixture of tight and loose. Not my favorite style of music, but they did a good job with such a large band. I felt some of the songs were lost to the music and not for the better. I think with all the options I would have like to have seen a bit more dynamic with the music some different instrumentation or styling between pieces.
Thank you for reading my opinion and comments. This is my first blog and I feel like I’ve waited to lose my blog virginity with the right person.
~Ivory Smith
