The Under the Radar festival of cutting edge international theater, curated by former P.S. 122 artistic director Mark Russell, continues through next weekend. Here’s a brief rundown of three shows seen so far.
Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: British theater company 1927 has staged a spellbinding blend of silent film-era aesthetics and macabre storytelling in this American premiere. Accompanied by a haunting live piano score, two pale women (pictured above) escort the audience through a series of Edward Goreyesque vignettes about vengeful gingerbread men, murdered grandmothers and a family that deep fries all their furniture and eats it. The stories are imaginative and wickedly amusing, but what’s really impressive is the way the actors interact with the lush video projection, which features stunning animation and acting treated to look like aged film stock. The precision needed to sync up the live performance with the film is quite remarkable; the eerie atmosphere invoked proves irresistible. Through Sunday, January 20th at P.S. 122.
BIG, 3rd episode (happy/end): Wonderfully weird; I’ve never seen anything quite like it. The French-Austrian dance theater collective Superamas have concluded their trilogy of shows about capitalism with a funny, eye-popping explosion of dance, rock, video and, well, riveting nudity. Using live music and re-enacted dialogue from such sources as Sex and the City, BIG (pictured) revels in the banality of sex-saturated consumer culture. Some scenes repeat multiple times with subtle variations, which doesn’t grow tedious if you’re okay with well-toned dancers repeatedly stripping naked and talking about vibrators. But just as the lithe bodies entrance you, BIG abruptly changes tone to look at the underbelly of lust – one sexy exchange is interrupted by BIG’s high point, a frightening car crash that lingers sublimely in the crackling stillness following the wreck. Last performance 4pm today at The Kitchen.
Small Metal Objects: Never seen anything like this, either. The Australian theater company Back to Back Theater is the only one in Australia with a full-time ensemble of disabled actors. This site-specific piece unfolds in the Whitehall Ferry Terminal, where waves of commuters gather and then rush to board the ferry to Staten Island. Wearing headsets, you sit and listen in on a tense, mysterious standoff between two working class blokes and a pair of yuppies desperately groveling for unspecified drugs. The intimacy of the strange, reverberating soundtrack and the actors' voices, transmitted live through wireless mics to your ears, stands in hypnotic contrast to the large space and swirling crowds. Last performance Monday at 2:45pm and 6:45. Call 212-967-7555 for tickets, which are free.
Photo of Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by Neil Hanna, photo of BIG by Wolfgang Kircher.
