Sensory Overload

It's been a bleak few months for me -- primarily because I continue to feel burnt out about and by theater performances, and this apathy is reinforced by terrible performances I've seen. I'm at a point where I am almost trying to avoid shows entirely. Sad.

At The Kitchen I saw a Big Art Group show for the first time and found it kind of appalling. Lots of camera/video work in bright crazy costumes and digitally manipulated backgrounds, and culminating in a crazy extravaganza of people wrapped in a million 260 balloons (used for making balloon animals) and attacking each other.... or something. I gather it was a reflection of the self-destructive non-stop mega-consumerism in our American lives on every level, with everything being indistinguishable from the zippy colorful commercial breaks, and there was some kind of allegory with people dressed up in animal costumes trying to find their way through the forest. All of this mattered little to me, though, because their in-your-face litany of screaming indecipherable language and hallucinogenic imagery never changed in dynamics from the beginning to the end of the 90 minute show. It was kind of a form of torture.

I did manage to catch Ibsen's Dollhouse by Mabou Mines at St. Ann's before the show closed forever. Though I found some parts a bit draggy, there were remarkable elements -- the womb-like red velvet-walled house/set; over-sized piano; miniaturized furniture pieces (not to mention the obvious size differences between the actresses and the actors. but most amazing was Maude Mitchell's mind-blowingly phenomenal performance as Nora. The end of the play, including Nora's stripping down to the scalp sent shivers up my spine.

Both shows were very high-concept and chockful of surprises and nuggets of invention. Without dynamics, though, it can all disappear into a wash of tedium.