Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Tiago Rodrigues’s captivating BY HEART stealthily illustrates how the act of memorization is also one of deep humanism

• By drediman
• October 15, 2021
• No Comments

Last night, I trekked out to the Brooklyn Academy of Music to attend a performance of Tiago Rodrigues’s By Heart, which is currently in the midst of a short run at BAM Fisher (the last performance in Brooklyn is this Sunday). In the unique and experimental “performance”, Mr. Tiago – who has been recently appointed the artistic director of the prestigious Avignon Festival – tasks ten volunteers from the audience to memorize Shakespeare’s Sonnet 30. In doing so, Mr. Tiago stealthily illustrates how the act of memorization is also one of deep humanism.

The evening starts off harmlessly enough as a slightly amusing but admittedly dry exercise in memorization. In bits, however, Mr. Tiago injects quotes from and anecdotes about notable cultural figures such as poet Boris Pasternak, writer Ray Bradbury, and critic George Steiner, which collectively makes a case for memorization as an agent for enrichment, empowerment, and revolution – particularly when utilized in dire circumstances. He pulls it all together when he introduces the story of his grandmother, a cook from northern Portugal, whose late-life act of memorization gorgeously distills and touchingly puts a personal spin on the proceedings by quietly but stunningly equating our capacity for memory to the state of being human.

Throughout the unconventional but utterly captivating 90-minute performance, Mr. Tiago downplays the theatrical nature of his show and eschews any semblance of spectacle, instead embracing a sort of unassuming workshop environment. He’s an ideal conductor for such an experience, and his easy charm and clear-eyed pragmatism firmly yet gracefully guides the evening. Much of the beauty of By Heart stems from its prismatic quality, and there are many other things participants can take from it. For example, among other things, it’s also challenged me to assess what it really means to engage in and consume with works of art, which as an arts critic hits pretty close to home.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

BY HEART
Off-Broadway, Play
Brooklyn Academy of Music
1 hour, 30 minutes (without an intermission)
Through October 17