Photo by Neal Easterling
Cooperative Performance Milwaukee’s MKE Carries offers a fully immersive theatrical experience, weaving together elements of dance, music, visual art, film and theater in order to tell the stories of five very different Milwaukeeans. The stories are based upon what these five people carry around every day, be it a pen, pill bottle or even a pack of wet-wipes.
As you enter the performance area, located at 143 N. Broadway, you are immediately struck by the amount of visual and sculptural art enveloping the space. To the right, a piece featuring hundreds of grocery bags, both plastic and paper, creeps up the brick walls like ivy. There is a makeshift kitchen, a large pile of electronics spun together with wires and newspaper, and a hodgepodge of tables and chairs scattered about the space.
Rounding the corner you are greeted first by one of the night’s performers, a homeless woman garbed in a dirty black coat and leafing through a gigantic backpack. After purchasing a ticket, each audience member is given one item at random. These items serve as important elements of the stories throughout the performance and patrons are instructed to keep them visible at all times. Audience members are asked to sit or stand wherever they would like and are encouraged to interact with the performers throughout the experience.
The first scene opens at a coffee shop with each actor using the space in some fashion. The audience then meets a young nurse. She shares a moment with a local Riverwest artist who, unlike her, is living paycheck to paycheck. At the bus stop, she meets a young African American dockworker. Though uneasy at first, the two talk about music for a bit before breaking out in dance, accidentally missing their bus in the process. In a humorous reflection on American culture, a Mexican American man struggles to make a batch of authentic tacos. The scene is juxtaposed with the nurse making her version of the dish. When she notices her recipe calls for seasoning, an audience member helps out by handing her the bottle of taco seasoning. Several other mini-scenes play out during the performance, each story representing a slice of life in Milwaukee, a city boasting immense diversity but largely separated by class, race and gender.
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Through March 27 at 143 N. Broadway. Tickets are available at cooperformke.com or at the door on a first-come-first-serve basis.
