Indie rockers do not often traffic in hope, but the Lisps are not your run-of-the-mill, irony-wielding indie combo. With their acclaimed Civil War-era steampunk rock musical Futurity, at MASS MoCA on Saturday, April 27th at 8 p.m., the Brooklyn-based band brings heartfelt storytelling to their mostly Tumblr-friendly audiences, while also introducing postmodern rock ‘tude to theater folk. All walk away smiling, and hopeful. Futurity debuted last year at Boston’s American Repertory Theater, and ever since, folks have been trying to describe this mélange of Americana, choral singing, old-timey science fiction, and drums comprised of metal film reels, a tractor seat, and a meat grinder, among other things. The Lisps sum it up thusly: “Futurity is a unique and compelling portrait of war, human imagination, and technological hubris." And it rocks. Even before Futurity came to fruition, the Lisps had achieved renown as rollicking, neo-vaudevillian, yet techno-savvy, showfolk, with three CDs and several tours under their collective belts. This not-to-be-missed MASS MoCA performance is partly preparation for the musical’s inclusion in Soho Rep’s 2014-2015 season, and partly to serve the Lisps’ need to get their ya-ya’s out.
Futurity is the story of Julian Munro, an inventor and Union soldier played by Lisps’ frontman and primary songwriter Cèsar Alvarez. (Futurity began as his Bard honors thesis, four years ago.) In the midst of the horror and crushing drudgery of America’s bloodiest conflict, Munro, obsessed with the promise of steam technology, conceives the Steam Brain. Munro hopes the Steam Brain, in its godlike properties, will help mankind see beyond the need for war. While this may sound far-fetched, Englishman Charles Babbage, eminent 19th Century mathematician and “father of the computer," did, in fact, conceive the “Analytical Engine," a proto-computer, which he was working on at the time of the American Civil War. Ada Lovelace, the only legitimate child of Romantic poet Lord Byron, and a fellow genius mathematician and metaphysician, assisted him. Modern scientists credit Lovelace–“the Enchantress of Numbers"–with articulating Babbage’s work and writing the first computer program in 1842. Both Lovelace and Babbage knew their ideas were sound, yet the hardware to manifest their visions did not yet exist, and funding for Babbage’s engine was cut; it would take over a century for Babbage and Lovelace to be vindicated.
“Futurity is a musical about ideas," says Lisps’ co-founder, singer, multi-instrumentalist and resident siren Sammy Tunis, who plays Lovelace in the musical. Tunis sings Lovelace’s manically enthusiastic (imaginary, though sourced from her actual writings)correspondences to Munro; the two of them work, via trans-Atlantic letters, to complete the Steam Brain, represented by Lisps’ drummer Eric Farber’s aforementioned Franken-kit. The specter of war–mankind at its basest–hangs over everything, while the desire to rise above it via technology spills forth in song. “You know in the beginning these people aren't going to succeed," Tunis says. “But it's a play about how important ideas are to people's hopes and dreams, even if they don't have the technology to pull it off."
In addition to providing everything from vocals and melodica to percussion, Tunis brings her experience as the only legit, trained thespian to Futurity. “It’s mostly Cèsar’s vision," she says,“ but I contributed a lot as far as the theatrical component. Ada was not a main character in the beginning. I thought she should be an equal character. Everybody says Ada needs her own musical. In the evolution of the piece, we went back and forth saying ‘How much of her life can we fit in this show?’ Her life is so layered. Her history and family are fascinating." Also fascinating is Alvarez’s contention that “science fiction is always about where we are right now… rather than really being about the future." And he is right. When taking in Futurity, one wonders what modern misunderstood genius, undeterred by present-day horrors, is toiling away in a basement right now, conceiving a technological wonder that will change humanity for the better. This hapless inventor, decades or even centuries ahead of his/her time, has little or no support. Yet, like Ada Lovelace in real life, and Julian Munro in Futurity, he/she forges on, daring to think differently, daring to traffic in hope. Not unlike a certain indie band from Brooklyn. -- Robert Burke WarrenThe Lisps: FuturitySaturday, April 27, 2013, 8:00 pm MASS MoCA, Club B-10 $12 advance / $16 day of the show / $10 student / 10% member discount
