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‘Broken City: Wall Street’ Breaks All the Rules and Wins

PopUP Theatrics’ latest offering, in collaboration with Signdance Collective International, defies convention, challenging not only the barrier between performer and spectator, but also between play and life.

By: Jackie Julie

Yesterday evening was my first foray into site-specific immersive theater. There is no curtain to rise, no cushy seat to sit in, and no applause at the end. Passersby serve as spontaneous sound designers, contributing to the ambient din. The audience is afforded intimate access, invited to experience the action in three hundred-sixty degrees at an arm’s length. It is a transformative four-dimensional experience not to be missed by any New Yorker with a sense of humor and a soul. 

Outside the temple of the theater with its stage as altar, the sanctity of the artform—perhaps paradoxically—is elevated, juxtaposed against the bustle of the Financial District. If actors and playgoers are clergy and congregation, respectively, then onlookers, especially those most likely to reject the theatrical cult, are cast as unwitting proselytes.

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