This is an evening of two pieces, conceived and performed by the collaborative team of artists known as Banana, Bag, and Bodice. Their show was a hit at the Brick Theatre in Williamsburg, and was extended for more performances at the Ontological. This show does weird -college-avant guard-stuff better than any group I’ve seen, well, since leaving college. They make no apologies for what they are; raw, gritty, obtuse, uncomfortable, silly, and serious all at once. I can’t think of enough adjectives to describe this show.

The first piece I realized I had already seen in the Gawk Festival, a full year and a half ago. The play, entitled “The Young War,” has changed a lot since then, but is essentially the same piece with the same intent. They sharpened it up and made it clearer. There are four panelists, conservatively dressed, clipboards in hand, pens sharpened, alert and calm. Then there is the sound designer running the panel who hops in and out of the action. The panel is simply a platform for which a collection of ideas is presented to the audience on a grand scale. The theme is relationships, specifically, abusive relationships. They use comedy, drama, music, poetry, dance, body movement, stage combat, prop humor, and bananas to express these themes. They explore love, obsession, sex, jealousy, rage, and eventually, death. In one relationship, it is the literal death of a lover (psycho-killer) style and in the other, the sad, slow death of love, as in, the loss of passion over the course of time. These themes are basic and known to us all, and are expressed in one of the strangest ways I’ve seen.

The second piece entitled “Sandwich” is a much lighter jaunt through a grotesque, nightmarish world of giant cats that murder and cannibalize their bunny friends, boys who think they are chickens, and German people cooking bacon. I’m not entirely sure what the central focus of this piece is, but honestly, it was a musical with fun songs and sing-along moments, so I was happy! At first I thought it was a comment of vegatarianism. The cat is sad when they cook her friend the Pig, but then she cuts open a pregnant bunny and eats her young (all done with fluffy cute puppets). Then I thought it was a clear-cut betrayal tale (Cat betrays Bunny, who thought she had found true love with the Cat.) Then there was some wierd stuff with a Chicken Little Boy with an anal fixation. Then a girl kills a butterfly and is yelled at by man who asks her why she did it, she says, because it was small, and he turns into a giant smashy armadillo, who then is attacked by blue alien (whom he promises a sandwich to), and the show ends up with the kitty still being sad her friend the Pig is dead, and the German owners continue to eat their bacon, but they tell the Cat that it is not bacon, but a Rock sandwich.
I think possibly what they are trying to say is that it is sad to eat animals, but we are bigger than them, and we have to eat something, or else we will all starve. So kitties will go on being sad.

Then I thought about the institution of the nuclear family within the confines of the show; mom and dad, chicken son and cat daughter. And I really can’t figure out how that fit in. But I know it existed there for a reason.

But honestly it was so much fun and the language was so excellent and gorgeous and the performances were so ravishing, I didn’t mind that I didn’t quite figure everything out as a literal absolute. I don’t think there are any literal absolutes in their universe. Everything is maleable and strange and symbolic. Really more performance art than theatre, I highly recommend this show. I hope they get lots of funding and continue to make this kind of edgy “downtown” inspired work for some time to come.

Also my friend and colleague Sarah Engelke dressed like an evil goat and played the piano in the musical bits. Nice work!

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 7th, 2005 at 10:01 pm and is filed under Theatre. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.