AquaMoon at the University of Chicago
Written by Misha
On Monday, January, 27th at the University of Chicago's Office of Multicultural Student Affairs, there was a presentation of "Love Does Not Hurt," the multi-media production about domestic violence written and directed by AquaMoon. The full version of the play (which was not able to be viewed in OMSA's community lounge) has a visual art component, music, dance and a number of other things to fulfill it's multimedia title. AquaMoon asserts that they based their writing on the "core poem" style, and compare it to Ntozake Shange's For Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide When the Rainbow was Enuf... It is a production that seeks to define domestic violence in all its capacities and to inspire dialogues so that groups and communities can come to solutions.
I had heard a lot about this production and was excited to see it but I don't know that I left completely satisfied. On one hand they were limited with space, materials and time and only got a snippet of the production. It had an interesting flow to it, parts were poetry inspired others were not, parts were well scripted, others gave the actors more freedom with their characters and the mix of talent was diverse from very talented, to mediocre and to the different things each actor could do (sing, dance, etc.) And on the other hand as they fought to combat the stereotype that domestic abuse was only physical, I was conflicted by the way they had gendered domestic abuse. And in the following discussion when I asked about it, I was still left unsatisfied. I asked if they considered men who are physically abused and they pointed out a part (that I did see) in which they gave the men a voice to their own internal pain, and that part was good but did not quite relate to my question. Then I was told that another character was verbally abused by his wife and that it drove him to alcoholism and to physically abuse him. And that was offered as if it addressed what I was asking about, when in my opinion it further gendered the production. That, in my opinion, makes the untrue statements that men cannot be physically abused by women and that women do not physically abuse men.
AquaMoon is a feminist group who normally work with women and they said that adding men into their production was a different experience in and of itself (though I don't think feminism means we only empathize with women). And I understand that in every project we can not address every issue. I think my biggest problem with the gendering of the production has to do with the fact that they said they were trying to define domestic violence in all it's capacities (emotional, financial, physical, etc.) and yet the capacities they ignored in my opinion were the different roles that it can manifest itself in.
The other issue is that the production did not address issues for a college community. Relationships involved children, marriage, shared incomes and shared financial responsibilities, which do not always apply to college aged relationships. And for it to be coming to a university campus, it seems like maybe something should have been adapted to that audience or at least prepared to be discussed after the fact.
It wasn't all bad though. It was enjoyable, and engaging and if the opportunity arises I would like to see the entire production and maybe get a more full experience of it. I enjoyed many of the actors and actresses and like the way some of the monologues were done. The performance's use of body language was impressive in engaging and communicating emotions to the audience.
(Cast: Krishauna Anderson, Rebecca Cotter, Shanara Fornett, Carmen Jones, Tierra Winston, R. Kova Hayse, Boaz McGee, Michael Johnson, Chris Jones, Mike Smith and Kenton Williams)
I think that the production itself is a good cause in trying to spread knowledge about domestic violence and in honoring a friend of AquaMoon who was killed because of domestic violence, and something is better than nothing. But a few changes to the show wouldn't hurt either. They aren't sure when they'll be able to do a full production in the future but hope for the fall, and I would suggest seeing it and getting the experience to see for yourself.
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