A Hip-Hop Cockroach

My favorite stories as a child were always the ones with layers of characters. I found this when I read The Cockroach by Chukovsky. Written in the early 1900’s, the poem starts out quite typically: lots of animals are living a peaceful and idyllic life together. Unfortunately, a mustachioed, power-hungry cockroach comes into town. He begins to terrorize the rest of the animals, threatening to cut them up with his moustache if they do not bow to his commands. His most astonishing desire is to eat the baby animals. Of course, the conflict is resolved and a plucky sparrow consumes the cockroach.

On January 12th our group saw a “Hip-Hop Operetta” based on this children's verse. Performed by students, his was the first run of the play. It opened with copious amounts of fog and an electric version of “hip-hop” music that remained constant throughout the play. The plot of the play differed slightly from the poem, instead of the cockroach wanting to eat the babies, he wanted to take away their books. This i obviously upsetting and our main character defeats the cockroach with words at the end of the play.

Not having a dance background, I do not know if I would call the style of dancing “hip-hop”. It reminded me of stomp. The constant music was quite loud, and combined with the flashing, I am very impressed with the baby who sat so calmly in his Mother’s arms next to me. However, I was never bored. The plot and actions were clear enough that the English speakers could follow. At an hour and fifteen minutes,I thoroughly recommend this play.

Even though the children's verse was written before the Stalin took control of Russia, the cockroach in the story was compared to Stalin. This resulted in Chukovsky being persecuted. With this play premiering at an equally fractious time in Russia, we can only wait and see what will come of this play with an emphasis on censorship.