The most amazing week of culture--or why I live in New York City
We had the most amazing week last week--"home run" performances across the board that left us buzzing. It started with Chicken People, one of the most affirming films I've seen, focusing primarily on four individuals whose passion is chicken shows (think Best in Show without the sardonic wry humor--these are wonderful needy people deserving of great respect, just like the rest of us).
Then we saw Taylor Mac (not his 24-hour marathon but the session on the 60's and the 70's). You need to see a Taylor Mac show, and not just because you'll never hear Born to Run or Gloria or Hard Rain's Gonna Fall (did Taylor Mac know that the Nobel Prize for Literature was coming?) the same way again. Mostly, it's because there's no other performer who asks you to participate and role play along with him (he wants to be referred to in the masculine, I believe?). During the show we watched, all of us were racists, gay, sluts, and a bunch of other stripes of people--not to repeat my previous paragraph but I will--just like the rest of us...
Then The Encounter--radical environmental theater at its hallucinatory best (we got high before we went to see this but honestly, between the stage effects and the drama of this beautiful one-person piece of work, you'll think you're on acid half the time--wow).
All three of these shows were top of their game, and none of them are playing anywhere else. But that leaves out the showstopper of showstoppers: Underground Railroad Game. These two performers (Jenn Kidwell and Scott Sheppard) bring trust to a new level, confronting racism and the liberal inclinations that attempt to brush it aside, but also simply confronting the reality that we still can't even talk about it honestly. Kids--let's split into the Confederate and the Union armies to learn about the Civil War, OK? Then watch what happens--and try to stay in your seat. Ben Brantly of the NY Times agreed with us (I think he saw it the same night we did, and coincidentally also saw The Encounter the same night we did)--this is as shocking and good and powerful as art gets.
It's funny that we also saw a perfectly good show last week (which Ben Brantly also saw the same night--we must have been following him)--Nat Turner in Jerusalem, at NYTW. A bit of classic drama that reminded us how far beyond "classic" the New York arts scene has gone. Nice piece of work, and in fact easy to recommend--but compared to the others above? Like food from a chain restaurant.
Then we saw Taylor Mac (not his 24-hour marathon but the session on the 60's and the 70's). You need to see a Taylor Mac show, and not just because you'll never hear Born to Run or Gloria or Hard Rain's Gonna Fall (did Taylor Mac know that the Nobel Prize for Literature was coming?) the same way again. Mostly, it's because there's no other performer who asks you to participate and role play along with him (he wants to be referred to in the masculine, I believe?). During the show we watched, all of us were racists, gay, sluts, and a bunch of other stripes of people--not to repeat my previous paragraph but I will--just like the rest of us...
Then The Encounter--radical environmental theater at its hallucinatory best (we got high before we went to see this but honestly, between the stage effects and the drama of this beautiful one-person piece of work, you'll think you're on acid half the time--wow).
All three of these shows were top of their game, and none of them are playing anywhere else. But that leaves out the showstopper of showstoppers: Underground Railroad Game. These two performers (Jenn Kidwell and Scott Sheppard) bring trust to a new level, confronting racism and the liberal inclinations that attempt to brush it aside, but also simply confronting the reality that we still can't even talk about it honestly. Kids--let's split into the Confederate and the Union armies to learn about the Civil War, OK? Then watch what happens--and try to stay in your seat. Ben Brantly of the NY Times agreed with us (I think he saw it the same night we did, and coincidentally also saw The Encounter the same night we did)--this is as shocking and good and powerful as art gets.
It's funny that we also saw a perfectly good show last week (which Ben Brantly also saw the same night--we must have been following him)--Nat Turner in Jerusalem, at NYTW. A bit of classic drama that reminded us how far beyond "classic" the New York arts scene has gone. Nice piece of work, and in fact easy to recommend--but compared to the others above? Like food from a chain restaurant.
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