32 Acres (Capsule Review)


[Original publication: No Proscenium, 8/17/21]
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Her voice tells me to look west, to the train tracks beyond the fence, to the hill above with urban debris cratered into its surface like discharged buckshot; it reminds her of the strange coagulations in her pockets, “like city lint.”
This is a moment from 32 Acres, a site-specific, interactive, and multisensory soundwalk by Marike Splint, presented by Center Theatre Group in association with UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. Set in the Los Angeles State Historic Park bordering Chinatown and Elysian Park, the title references its 32 acres of space. Layered with disarming metaphors, historical details, and personal musings (in addition to impeccable production design), it’s an individual perspective rooted in the universal and a meditation on emotional, physical, cultural, and geographical landscapes.
At its core, 32 Acres probes our relationships within these landscapes: generation to generation, individual to communal, person to city, natural to industrial. Splint explores how these connections embody and impact a place across time, eventually bleeding into and shaping our identities; within the scope of just 75 minutes, Splint acts as a cultural doula, birthing an entirely new perspective for shared spaces and how we serve as caretakers of the past, present, and future. It permanently altered my relationship to the park by endowing it with a stratum of meaning.
At its conclusion, I weaved through the park and spotted two people standing in front of a locked gate, searching for the horizon. They stood close and still, and as I approached I saw earbud evidence of what I already suspected: they were listening to the soundwalk, too. And now, I knew of two people who would retrace my footsteps as I retraced Splint’s, as she retraced those that came before, over hundreds of years.