Polyglot Theatre’s Tangle decontextualizes NYUAD’s campus plaza, turning it into a playground of colorful elastic streamed through the air. The instructions for play are simple: take your ball of elastic and do something with it within the fence that surrounds the space. What emerges from these simple constraints and the design of play are various individualized experiences rooted in a shared outcome of empowerment. Through its ability to engage various audiences and its potential for expression, Tangle invites its audiences to create their own meaning and play experience.
When observing Tangle, I was struck by the range of participant ages, the audience an amalgamation of parents, grandparents, college students, and kids. Every participant had the same instruction yet the resulting visible experiences differed. For instance, most of the kids immediately started to take the elastic and build their own cities, swings, and other architectural feats. The few college students present, myself included, were a bit hesitant to partake in the experience, perhaps due to a self-awareness and societal influence that developed over time. However, the performers addressed this by initiating play with those who weren’t quite sure what to do or were feeling shy. For instance, they would start “tagging” people or tieing them up, forcing the participant to respond in some way. Thus, the performer is critical to making the play inclusive and encouraging the participant to make the active decision to engage with the space. Once the participant has decided to engage with the space, they are inevitably transformed in some way and their confidence in playing increases. Thus, they are empowered to create their own experience and interact with others and the space in a greater capacity.
Additionally, there were some differences amongst the participants who were there as a caretaker. Some of the caretakers were in the ribbons chasing the child or playing with them. Some of the parents/guardians/grandparents would stand on the side and observe the child from afar, making comments such as “Wow! That’s amazing.” or “What are you building?” However, due to the labyrinth of ribbon, the caretaker would inevitably have to enter the mass of ribbons to keep track of the child. Thus, the design of the space encouraged observers to enter the space deeper and actually move through the ribbon. Additionally, having such a relatively small space meant that each participant would surely cross the path of another. As I ran into other participants within the space, we exchanged a smile or look of shared understanding, creating a sense of group empathy. Other participants would start playing together, evident by the expanding game of tag. In this regard, Tangle can be thought of as a social experience, that even if you are not actually speaking to another participant and even if the participants have wildly different ages, there is a warm feeling ensuing from the group empathy that the performance facilitates.
Having Tangle in the campus plaza meant that almost anyone on campus would walk past the space. The colorful elastic ribbon and the musical performances invited observers to question “what’s that” and see the campus plaza in a new context. Even at night, when no performances went on, the lighting of the space created intrigue about the experience. Thus, Tangle transcends traditional boundaries of performer, participant, and observer–no matter which role they had, the individual is transformed in some way. The performers and the design of the space encourage the participant to engage with others and the space and create their own meaning, whether it be a bonding experience with their child, a chance to get out of the everyday routine, or play an epic game of tag. Through being abstract enough that the participant must create their own experience, the space empowers the participant to find their own meaning and inevitably transforms its audience.
Tangle also creates meaningful play through its expressive nature. There are basic constraints based on the participant: do whatever you want with this specific ball of elastic within this space. Within these constraints, the participant has great freedom of movement. They can pick the color of the elastic, where they start, where they go, what they do within the space, etc. This freedom of movement facilitates artistic expression. The participant is able to leave a visible impact on the space and the idea of construction, common to many Polyglot productions, allows the participant to imagine anything they want. With elastic and the ability to build anything, the participant can build a tower, wrap another participant like a mummy, create a beautiful path, etc. In this way, Tangle is a powerful reminder that there is no single way to get from point A to B and it allows the participant to create anything they desire within the space. Tangle’s potential for expression empowers the participant to create something and elicit meaning from the structure they create and the experience of creating.
One design choice I am still considering is enclosing the space with a fence though it may not have actually been a choice the artists made. The fence seemed to contradict the ideology of making play inclusive for everyone, encouraging play in everyday life, and decontextualizing a public space. It seemed contradicting to have Tangle in the campus plaza, the most open and public part of campus, but surround it by a fence so the everyday passerby could not interact with it. Additionally, it created a distinction between a play-world and the “real” world which symbolically does not encourage the participant to utilize this transformation in the “real” world. On the other hand, having a fence symbolically has a boundary distinguishing the play space, lending itself to creating a world that defies the “real” world expectations. Despite the fence, Tangle still achieves an outcome of transforming and empowering the participant.
Through creating a meaningful experience for multiple audiences and providing a space for artistic expression, Tangle is able to generate a feeling of empowerment.