CAREENING IS A SKILL
By 1987 the band had split up and Beau O’Reilly, the most actively creative member, had joined up with an actress named Jenny Magnus. Together they constructed the cabaret review, The Angles of Angst, the Omelettes of Experience, or It’s All the Same Fuckin’ Day, Man. The piece reflected nearly all the worst aspects of the incoherent-funny-noises-and-grotesque-postures school of performance art–except for a couple of sharp-edged musical numbers whose professionalism stood out like compass points amid the chaos.
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Jenny Magnus is outstanding in her multiple roles. Assigned what could easily have become nothing more than an agitprop drag act, she gives each individual a full set of human characteristics and–most important–an equally valid point of view. She takes these characters seriously, something done all too seldom in this kind of play. As the naive and passive Nothing-Is-Everything Man, Bryn Magnus doesn’t have much to do, but he brings a touching bewilderment to the part. Beau O’Reilly seems incapable of underplaying, but he keeps his mannerisms and mugging under control well enough to produce a polished and disciplined performance. Of the Doctor Body chorus, only Kate O’Reilly–with goldfish eyes and a clear soprano strong enough to guide in airplanes–is memorable.
