Garden City Beautiful

Hitting the road on a sunny afternoon. As you drive through the concrete landscape, letting your mind wander. Could it be any other way? In Ben Balcom’s Garden City Beautiful, two carpoolers drift off the highway and, half asleep, begin reciting a letter written in 1895 by Victor Berger, a politician and leader of Milwaukee’s Socialist Party. In it, Berger imagines a society freed from exploitation, where machines have been harnessed in the service of human emancipation. Alas, the reality of Milwaukee suggests that Berger’s idealistic, almost naïve vision has remained just that : a utopia. And our two laid-back travellers dream on, smiling at the prospect of a future built on joyful interdependence and endless holidays. “Waking up is a long process…”

Naomie Décarie-Daigneault
Tënk's Artistic Director