Éire go Brách - Abbey Theatre's Terminus

Now I wanted to see this play in part because I am of Irish descent.
I wear a Claddagh ring.
My son is named Declan.
I like green.
And this show is from The Abbey Theatre in Dublin.

But this show makes me want to apply for Irish citizenship.
(Full disclosure: I'd apply anyways, but I'm just sayin'.)

Three incredible actors stay in one solitary small platform each for the whole show. They speak in rhyming couplets that go back and forth bouncing and cascading throughout. As their stories progress, the narratives begin to intersect and crisscross. While the actors don't interact with each other directly, their emotions, yearnings, and desires certainly simmer with occasional explosions of revelations.

I have become jaded with theatre over the years. I get too analytical or picky and find that with many performances much of what I see is without depth. Not so with "Terminus." By the end I was weeping with both sorrow and joy. It is a fantastical tale full of demons and murder, dates gone wrong and vigilante justice, car chases and beatings. Sounds like a real crowd pleaser, doesn't it?

But here's the thing, Terminus is filled with so much humor, so much hope, and so much humanity that one leaves the play with a greater sense of being. While their journeys may end when the lights go out, you will be continuing the tale for long after.

Posted by Brian Costello
PICA
UTR Press Corps

200 Harry Caul's - Back to Back Theatre's small metal objects

Like the opening scene of Francis Ford Coppola's oft over-looked masterpiece "The Conversation," 200 of us sat with headphones attached to our heads and monitored a desperate conversation involving a Hitchcockian MacGuffin object hidden a locker within the bowels of the Whitehall Ferry Terminal.


We can't quite see the performers for a while, due to the ebb and flow of people coming and going to Staten Island; and we don't really know what they're talking about. Before long, we, as an audience sitting on risers in the middle of a busy ferry terminal become a performance ourselves with the hundreds of "innocent bystanders" watching us look back and watch them. It becomes a standoff of audience headphones vs. travellers' iPods. Surveillance vs. Participation. Reality vs. Fantasy. Who's watching who?

Through it all, the wizards at Back to Back seamlessly move between the throngs and as we get our bearings, we become engrossed in the rising stakes and emotional pull of the two friends. One wants to sell the item. The other is having an emotional crisis. The seller won't leave his friend. The buyer is anxious.

A simple equation that works to incredible effect with the backdrop of security, eavesdropping, and constant monitoring.

As the final line in "The Conversation" ominously states,

"We'll be listening to you."

Posted by Brian Costello
PICA
UTR Press Corps

Superamas Superamas Superamas

Should I say it again? I think they would.

Superamas.

A piece that plays upon, deconstructs, and somewhat celebrates artifice, "BIG, 3rd Episode (happy/end)" at the Kitchen is, without a doubt, one of my highlights of UTR 2008. Beautiful actors presenting scenes with Americanized voices overdubbing their live pantomimes, Superamas replays scenes over and over again. Each derivation producing just a little bit different glint into the focus, the characters, and the awesomeness. With their precise dance-influenced movements, every step is perfect.

Interspersed throughout the live scenes and incredible music and set design are videos that play upon an idealized "Let's all put on a show in New York!" optimism (along with a killer Claude Wampler cameo) and a group of films with an affinity for cheerleaders, hockey, and some kind of sensual massage.

And then, of course, there are the naked people.

With a scene inspired in part by "Sex In The City," three actresses come into a locker room discussing their sexual exploits and desires with and for various men. It is a bookended counterpoint to the opening scene of a bunch of men rehearsing Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and discussing a buddy's newly impregnated mistress. While we see it over and over, both scenes beg the questions:

But are they happy?
Is it all for show?

Posted by Brian Costello
PICA
UTR Press Corps

Regurgitophagy - I Sing The Body Electric

Michel Melamed attaches electric nodes to his wrists and ankles. He proceeds to go on a monologish trip covering politics, love, and food. However, every cough, laugh, murmur, or outburst from the audience is transmitted into shocks that shoot through Melamed's body.

And just when you think he's faking it, he hooks up an innocent audience member and gently shocks them. Much to their surprise.

It is a visceral piece, to say the least. Contested and contentious, one wonders if Melamed is in a battle with the audience. He wants your response and yet pays a price for it.

While it is shocking, it is not the shocking I would expect. And in the end, is it merely a trick? To what end does the shock of electricity take us?

I leave you with Walt Whitman to ponder it further:

I SING the Body electric;
The armies of those I love engirth me, and I engirth them;
They will not let me off till I go with them, respond to them,
And discorrupt them, and charge them full with the charge of the Soul.

Was it doubted that those who corrupt their own bodies conceal themselves;
And if those who defile the living are as bad as they who defile the dead?
And if the body does not do as much as the Soul?
And if the body were not the Soul, what is the Soul?

Whitman's "charge" takes on a whole new meaning with Melamed's enterprise.

Posted by Brian Costello
PICA
UTR Press Corps

Ring Ring RING! This Place Is A Desert for sure . . .

An ambitious and visually arresting piece, I was disappointed with TPAD. Bogged down a bit, perhaps, by opening festival jitters, it took a while for the performers to really get into the skin of their characters. Things felt actor-y and frantic. Coupled with this is the amazing set of massive projection screens simulcasting live feeds of scenes as they happen. Some are via placed cameras, other are via a handheld visual narrator who follows the action.

While I applaud the idea, I found the execution lacking. Many scenes were blocked and staged directly for the camera, rather than for the audience. This gives occasionally odd tableaus. But perhaps I'm missing something. Maybe some of this unsettling juxtaposition is exactly the point.

We're not entirely supposed to empathize with the characters struggling through their relationships and lives, we're only witness to the trainwreck of the journey.

That said, man, that ringing phone at the opening was maddening.

Posted by Brian Costello
PICA
UTR Press Corps

The Future of Future Aesthetics

Alas, my UTR Blogging is tardy. But blog I shall. For I saw many an amazing show
and have had plenty of time to think about them.

After walking into the Public lobby bleary-eeyed from an all night flight, I headed up to the symposium "Future Aesthetics/Hip Hop Theater - the next generation. Who's got next?" Let by Marc Bamuthi Joseph and Kamillah Forbes, the discussion was collegial and more roundtably than didactic. Which was refreshing and invigorating to hear every one contribute.

A good chunk of the discussion revolved around not only who the next voices are and what will they say but also--and equally important--how do you, as a presenter/curator, help communicate that work to a broader audience. One wants to diversify audiences and market to both a theatre audience or a ballet audience, but what works for an older generation doesn't always translate for a younger.

One participant brought up the production of "Raisin In The Sun" with Puff Daddy. Was that hip hop? Was it just marketing? Was it good?

This brought up discussion again about reaching younger artists and audiences and what mechanism works best. Given that you want to hear something new but also want to expose audiences to something they're not expecting, a general consensus was built around the idea of contextualization. Context is everything.

And with that, we broke up to add greater context to the rest of UTR.

Posted by Brian Costello
PICA
UTR Press Corps

Going Under : The 2008 Under the Radar Festival ( theater mania feature)

includes experimental and site-specific works such as Stoop Stories, Terminus, Poetics: A Ballet Brut, Etiquette

http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm/story/12420