PHANTOM RATS
Bieganski bills himself as a comedian, juggler, and dancer. Well, if he’s a comedian, it remains to be proven. Only one of his five character sketches (a hyperactive rat) seems in any way comic. The other characters include a feeble old man who lives alone with a cat, a shell-shocked carnival performer called the Human Firecracker, and a rather stark carnival sharpie who runs a concession where people try to win goldfish. The main character, however, is a young man who sits by the window through sleepless nights, waiting for his girlfriend who will never appear and watching household items, such as a clock or a shoe, turn into phantom rats. It’s the young man who opens and closes the show, sets the tone, and establishes the theme. What a downer, and he compounds his depression with self-pity. No wonder his girlfriend never shows up.
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Another beautiful, though slightly less hypnotic routine features a wooden chair as Bieganski’s dance partner. It’s slightly reminiscent of Fred Astaire’s famous pas de deux with a hat rack, only surreal rather than jazzy. This time Bieganski plays the old man, who indulges in a little frivolous regression by spinning the chair as a dancer. Gradually, the old man grows younger and less feeble, eventually standing on his hands on the chair, in triumph over insidious gravity, until he relapses into old age and humbly thanks the chair for supporting him. As was said of Astaire, Bieganski makes the chair look good.
