WE GOT A DATE
The Goat Island performance group is one of Chicago’s hidden jewels. Their first piece, the critically acclaimed Soldier, Child, Tortured Man, premiered here in 1987 and then went on to tour 11 American cities. Though their current work, We Got a Date, is only their second, it demonstrates a remarkable maturity, thoroughness, and rigor, combining physically demanding movement sequences with skillful acting and careful staging to create a refreshing evening of performance.
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We Got a Date is being presented in the gymnasium of the Wellington Avenue United Church of Christ; the audience is divided into two halves, which face each other in two long rows of folding chairs. True to the environment, the four performers (Joan Dickinson, Matthew Goulish, Greg McCain, and Timothy McCain) enter from what might be the locker room, dressed in identical white T-shirts, long blue shorts, white socks, and black work shoes. The four stand in a stagy pose and then stride meaningfully to the far end of the room, preparing to walk the gauntlet between the two lines of spectators. It is as if the losingest basketball team in history is about to pass before the NBA draft.
After this absurdly serious moment, with Dickinson “confessing” in a perfectly detached cadence, pandemonium returns: the four enact what appears to be some sort of wedding ritual, Dickinson in a bridal gown, Goulish in a black taffeta prom dress, and Greg McCain in an ill-fitting dark suit. They throw each other around the stage in their efforts to capture a pair of wet Jockey shorts, as if possession of the underpants offered some hope of liberation. In this thrilling section, Timothy and Greg McCain toss Goulish about like a doll while Dickinson dances gracelessly. In the scene’s grotesque culmination, the bride is dumped on top of Timothy McCain, who then drags himself, using only his hands, down the length of the gym floor.
