NOW PLAYING: Porn Rock: The Obscenity Trial of Jello Biafra
Audiences become the jury in this docu-comedy in LA
In 1985 Dead Kennedy’s front man Jello Biafra put a copy of Swiss surrealist painter and Alien designer H.R. Gieger’s Landscape #XX into the album art of their third studio album Frankenchrist.
This would trigger an obscenity trial during an era when punk and rap music were in the crosshairs of the culture warriors, the legacy of which we’re still dealing with today.
Now writer Lawrence Meyers and director Jeremy Kagan have put together a play based on the trial, which invites the audience to play the part of the jury.
We caught up with writer & performer Meyers to find out more about the new show, which is playing through March 23rd in East Hollywood.
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No Proscenium: Tell us a little bit about your experience! What’s it about? What makes it immersive?
Lawrence Meyers: The comedic drama brings to life the 1987 Los Angeles obscenity trial of Jello Biafra, lead singer of punk band Dead Kennedys, and offers incisive exploration of the tension between free speech and artistic responsibility.
Set against the backdrop of the Reagan-era “culture wars,” Porn Rock takes audiences inside the courtroom where Biafra was thrust into the national spotlight when he was charged with “distributing harmful matter to minors” due to the inclusion of a sexually explicit painting in the Dead Kennedys’ Frankenchrist album.
The show has 3 interactive elements: a pre-show where audiences provide lyrics for a punk rock song, a brief voir dire where guests are asked their opinion about issues relevant to the case, and a vote on Biafra’s guilt or innocence that determines how the show ends.
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Cameras cover the action as well, delivering real-time video onto TV screens on the stage.
NP: What was the inspiration for your upcoming experience?
LM: This is my second “Porn Rock” show, which tackles the tension between free speech and artistic responsibility that was a hallmark of the 1980’s culture wars. It was specifically inspired in 1987 as I passed a lecture hall at Cornell University and saw a hastily-scribbled sign that read, “Jello Biafra of Dead Kennedys — Talk on Censorship — 8PM”. I didn’t know what a Jello Biafra was but I was perpetually concerned about censorship. Biafra delivered a blistering two-hour spoken word performance that I never forgot.
NP: What do you think fans of immersive will find most interesting about this latest experience?
LM: It’s an experiment. Proscenium theatre is dying, and immersive/interactive is this dynamic emerging form that can bring re-vivify proscenium as a hybrid experience. We’ve created a show that gives traditional audiences a taste of interactivity; a feeling that their input matters; and power over how the narrative resolves. The goal is to show that there is this new way to experience storytelling where guests can be active participants — an amuse bouche for newbies.
NP: Once you started designing and testing what did you discover about this experience that was unexpected?
LM: I know I shouldn’t be surprised by this, but I always am. It’s that interactive beginners get really invested when asked to participate. They want to enter the world created for them and explore it, even in this limited form. This show has provided one more proof point that a hybrid site-specific show I’m planning for spooky season is going to thrill immersive newbies and veterans alike.
NP: What can fans who are coming to this, or thinking about coming to this, do to get into the mood of the experience?
LM: Get familiar with the punk rock DIY aesthetic; definitely read lyrics to songs from Dead Kennedys’ Frankenchrist; read a bio about California AG John Van De Kamp; think about what (if any) responsibilities artists have to society; consider what free speech means to you.
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