Philly Fringe 2016 review: 'COMMODITIES'

To add to the mystery, The Oven, a company from Baltimore, MD, elected not to publish a program, so an internet search was necessary to find out about them and their work, but there's little out there. The Oven’s Facebook page says they "produce theatre for social change experiences. Something's burning and we're going to talk about it."

Great reckonings in a little room

COMMODITIES explores the sex trafficking of children and teenagers. Five young actors — college age, perhaps — are lined up, each on a small platform elevated on paint cans. They could be cells, or just represent how trapped they are by their circumstances. Each has an old chair. Each is alone; they never interact. The production is lit with fluorescent tube lighting operated with remote controls. It’s an impressively low-tech approach that produces an eerie, harsh glare and, particularly through each character's footlight strip, an unearthly glow.

Each tells a harrowing story about being tricked, seduced, and forced into sex work. The other four become a chorus, often speaking their oppressors' lines together, or echoing key words. They make eye contact with the audience, seated in one row just a few feet away, sharing their brutal stories with a simple frankness that feels utterly genuine. Their acting seems too skilled and precise for them to be actual victims, so their veracity is particularly impressive, and the 45-minute show is expertly crafted, probably scripted by a capable playwright, and directed with vision.

Attention must be paid

A few handouts at the box office table explain the statistical realities of this under-reported social problem: in the United States, roughly 100,000 children a year fall victim to sex trafficking and the commercial sexual exploitation of children. Many are runaways, and most have a history of child sexual abuse. Most of these children are controlled by pimps. The experts don't know how many victims escape these situations.

This play, however, makes its statement by sharing the shocking, intimate details of individuals forgotten by society.

COMMODITIES is fine theater work under high-pressure circumstances. I wish I could laud the actors and other creators by name. Next year, look for The Oven in the Philly Fringe Festival; you might be the first among your friends to see whatever bold, urgent, and powerful work they bring to Philadelphia. Maybe we'll even find out who they are.