Off the Boards: Performance Stuff

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Cynthia Hopkins in Must Don't Whip 'Um

Cynthia Hopkins in Must Don't Whip 'Um

I don’t review or talk about theater much here on the blog, but we go to stuff fairly regularly. On The Boards is a great, great place and I’ve never had a boring night in those seats. I’m trying to compile a list of stuff I’ve seen. Here goes.

  • Theatre Replacement’s “Sexual Practices of the Japanese”
    This piece was visually stunning – a row of hanging suits acted as the backdrop for almost every scene, sometimes a wall, sometimes the interior of a subway. There were a lot of Ichiro jokes.

  • Cynthia Hopkins’ “Must Don’t Whip ‘Um”
    Whirling, exhilarating performance, half rock show half play. Mysticism, hippies, camerawork, drawn on mustaches. I wish we could’ve seen Cynthia as Gloria Deluxe in NYC when we were there, but I think our feet were too sad to trek.
    • Radiohole's ANGER/NATION

    ANGER/NATION by Radiohole

  • Radiohole’s “Fluke (The Solemn Mysteries of the Ancient Order of the Deep) or Dick Dick Dick”
    What other troupe feeds you grog and beer before you take your seat? Radiohole can do no wrong in my eye – I love how their stories tie together (or don’t) like some perfect song you knew but had forgotten. We saw Anger/Nation in NYC and it was swell, too. I particularly enjoyed an exchange between two guy characters involving a toy gun, a creepy clown like laugh track, and slow motion movement that lasted about 10 minutes. I like moments that can make some audience members leave when I want to stay. I have a very big girlcrush on Maggie Hoffman. I want her to read the NY Times outloud to me every Sunday.

    • Orpheus and Euridyce

    Orpheus and Euridyce

  • Compagnie Marie Chouinard’s “Orpheus and Eurydice”
    This show had good parts (neat little slinky snakes made a metal that dancers manipulated with their mouths and fingers), but a lot of it was that style of theater I just don’t enjoy: the kind where they force the audience into the piece. Before the show started I heard a woman next to me say to her companion “I’ve heard there’s a crawler in this one.” She was right — halfway through the show one of the dancers made her way up to the back of the space by crawling over the audience. She was howling from behind the audience and the rest of the dancers were howling back at her from the stage. There was a lot of tongue speaking, grunting, strained vocalizations, yelling and did I mention the howling? The noise level lost its effect quickly in the show and became monotonous. I did like the little furry costumes, though.

  • Linas Phillips’ “Lasagna or: How I learned to stop slipping towards the prison of permanent darkness”
    I was pretty excited to see this; Linas Phillips directed “Great Speeches From a Dying World” which I enjoyed. Sky and I were at odds on this one: he loved it and I liked it but found the ending too repetitive and tacked on. I did enjoy the format, a lot: a nice, natural mix of live performance and recorded videotape. The Q&A was fun and I felt a little starstruck because I sat behind one of the subjects from “Great Speeches…”, Tomey Smith (which frankly is one of the most amazing things, ever: being starstruck by a homeless guy).*

  • tEEth’s “Grub”
    More grunting and tongues in this one, but I felt emotionally attached to much of the performance, so it didn’t bug me like it did in Orpheus and Eurydice. There were a lot of percussionary bits (stomping, clapping, vocalizations in rounds) and some neat stuff done with bluescreen and video. I kind of wished we hadn’t stayed for the Q&A: it wasn’t very informative and the creators seemed really uncomfortable up there; still, a great show.

    • Next up, tonight in fact, is No Dice, from Nature Theater of Oklahoma. It’s 4 hours long, in a warehouse, and they feed you snacks. I’m pretty excited, as I hear they serve PB&J. Art + sandwiches, who can ask for more than that?

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    * Okay so maybe “starstruck” isn’t the right word, but I was in a sort of thrall. He was there with his ex-girlfriend (also featured in the documentary). On a side note, when I saw the movie @ NWFF, one of the subjects was spare changing outside the showing. About 20 people walked out of the door without seeming to recognize him, even though he had been on the screen about 25 minutes ago. So bizarre.

     

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I'm a Children's Librarian by day and asleep by night. I'm constantly observing the world around me and I need a place to store my not secret findings.

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