Big Apple Turns to Cider @ Nuyorican Poet’s Café

An 80-minute play completely in rhyme! Simple in originality, Big Apple Turns to Cider, written by Gustav Gauntlett, is a witty, and unparalled theatrical endeavor, but as a narrative, the storyline hungers for deeper development.

Big Apple begins with a familiar scenario, but an uncommon factor. A very convincing Cali, the—surprise!—Californian bred protagonist is framed for a homicide that he did not commit, and flees from the enforcement agents (pigs) and his native, once-safe-haven/sunny/beach abundant west coast, and into the dank, dark, and solitary streets of New York. Cali’s life-force is hip-hop, so when he is ousted from a cipher, and told to go “back to your cave that you came from homie!,” namely his otherworldly planet of LA, he is angered and deflated from the alienation, sighing “Maybe a celibate prison was a better decision” (than staying in NY), and then does all that he can to prove his “gulliness,” and capability to battle with New York emcees. Despite his inability to pronounce Afrika Bambaataa, or Rakim correctly, he is saved by Karmain, a hood cat who has access to the gates of the “underground”, and sets Cali to become the proverbial grass(hip)hopper of a hilariously RZA-esque wizard, who puts him through a 7-days-and-nights hip-hop rite of passage. Upon surfacing from the underground, he is well versed (pun intended) to spit/battle/flow with precision and wisdom.

It is unclear the actuality of Cali’s success, as the last scene ends with another cop and crook chase. And this time the police are black, and the deviant is white. Not only is this an uncommon scenario in the landscape that bore hip-hop, but the racial significance, or perhaps lack there of is never addressed. What is Cali’s socioeconomic background? Was he merely in the wrong place at the wrong time, or were his unnamed affiliations the base of his troubles? Additionally, is
Cali now a true emcee because he is accepted by New York cats, implying that New York defines “real” hip-hop? Or does the end scene suggest that Cali will always be fleeing from himself in order to find himself? And what exactly inspires Cali’s love for hip-hop? Throughout his New York flight to avoid prosecution, he stays strangely isolated, even as he ultimately finds his acceptance. Many questions linger without answers within this hip-hop musical.

Appearing for the first time at the legendary Nuyorican Poet’s Café, Big Apple features mostly aspiring emcees and a few professionally trained actors. In honor of the space and the aesthetic, Big Apple attempts interactive scenes, living up to the true traditions of hip-hop theater, yet there was still a lack of familiarity and ownership that will hopefully be remedied as they get more runs. Though the dialogue was cleverly written, the delivery of that same dialogue could have benefited from more overall enthusiasm from the actors, yet there were some very memorable cipher scenes, featuring freestyles from Tidal Friction and Cali (MJ Donahue). Though the quality of acting fluctuates throughout the piece, the memorization of the rapid dialogue and timing were thoroughly on point, deserving an absolute A for effort. And with complimentary cuts and scratches from DJ Henry C, Big Apple is a true hip-hop experience, which is the fundamental point. It is the hope that this play continues to build until it becomes an inter-genre/multi-medium classic.

 -Boyuan Gao

http://www.myspace.com/appletocider