Review Roundup: OFF THE RECORD: Acts of Restorative Justice at HERE Arts Center

HERE Arts Center is presenting the World Premiere of Off the Record: Acts of Restorative Justice, written and performed by James Scruggs in collaboration with Thomas Giovanni, at the HERE Mainstage, through April 19.

OFF THE RECORD: Acts of Restorative Justice is a theatrical intervention aimed directly at the American Criminal Justice System and a call for audiences to activate their activism and stoke the fires of change. Invoking magic, mysticism, hard-facts, and carnival games, this performance will help audiences build their tool kit to take the necessary next steps toward fostering systemic transformation.

Created by former HARP artist and recent Guggenheim Fellow James Scruggs in collaboration with national criminal justice advocate Thomas Giovanni, Off the Record is co-directed by Michael Rohd, the founder/director of the Co-Lab for Civic Imagination at the University of Montana, and Annalisa Dias, one of HERE's new Co-Directors. See what the critics are saying here...

Jon Sobel, Blogcritics: Ultimately this provocative but pessimistic show also indicts the community itself for passive acceptance – as someone so conditioned to going in the back door that when “seeing no back door he makes one for himself.” Still, there’s something potentially productive in gathering in these points of view, these experiences, this history in a communal, and sometimes slightly confrontational, artistic setting. For my part, as a “white” person I gleaned as much from the responses from the audience as from what was happening on stage – which was a lot.

David Walters, The Front Row Center: What the play did give me was the immense feeling of how daunting this problem is. Knowledge, knowing, and acknowledgment are worth something, but the next step towards action from there is almost a journey to the moon. I was forced to address the idea of being an activist for a cause that I believe in, and what I would have to give to act with my convictions. The feeling of, “I’m only one person” doesn’t hold much water after this show. Prepare to be challenged. “The real question is – do you want tomorrow to look like yesterday, or do you want tomorrow to look like something else?”

Average Rating: 80.0%