Push: An Amplified Reading, by Alexia Monduit and Thomas Rannou, at PS 122

Act French presents Push: An Amplified Reading, based on the novel by Sapphire, adapted by Alexia Monduit and Thomas Rannou, at PS 122 from the 3 - 13 Nov 2005

Push: An Amplified Reading the improbable liberation of Precious Jones, the central character in Sapphire�s unflinching novel of urban poverty, as a creation myth. In such stories, the hero, someone from whom something definitive has been taken, must show great and sustained courage to get it back. Dark-skinned Precious Jones has the deck stacked against her as a sexually abused, HIV-positive, obese, illiterate, pregnant teenage mother. Her trials require her to do battle with all these conditions amid the violence, drugs, unemployment and homelessness epidemic in Harlem in the 1980s. Her breakthrough, when it comes, is through words: simple journal entries that verify her existence and lead to a vision of justice and kindness for herself and her children.

The publicity for the show says "In the sonic environment of this performance, Precious Jones gives birth to her voice in halting phrases that churn and shift, gaining strength under extreme pressure. Beats, samples and �found� sounds ricochet in and out of rhythm, slip into stillness, thunder, occasionally bodiless, echoing, modulating, faltering, repeating, becoming. The �amplified reading� is a song in the act of being written."

Push: An Amplified Reading is directed by Alexia Monduit and Thomas Rannou and has sound design by Nadia Lauro amd sound by Thomas Rannou.