TOO MUCH LIGHT MAKES THE BABY GO BLIND
Conceived and staged by Greg Allen, this show takes some of its fire from the old futurism, a literary-artistic movement that began in Italy around 1909. In manifestos and onomatopoeic poems F.T. Marinetti fulminated its credo: a celebration of technology, speed, and automation—and an equal delight in irrationality, adventure, and war. According to Marinetti, “With Futurism art has become action, as will, attack, possession, penetration, joy and brutal reality.”
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Appropriately, Allen’s tongue-in-cheek updating of a futurist entertainment exalts speed and chance. His seven-member troupe (the three others were taking a break the night I saw it) relish “the simultaneous clash of opposing emotions, contradictory ideas, and separate realities.” You see this in the engineered randomness of the show: as they arrive, audience members throw a die to determine how much they pay (from $1 to $6), receive name tags with made-up monikers, and then step onto the stage to chat in groups with cast members.
The show stays fresh because the plays are changed weekly (the number of new works to be introduced each week is determined by two throws of a die). During the show’s 20-month run—first at Stage Left Theatre and now to packed houses at Live Bait Theater—the ever-changing cast have created an awesome 546 plays, only two of which I recall seeing less than a year ago.
“Mr. Science Demonstrates Othello” is among the novelty acts. Greg Allen reduces the tragedy to a lab demonstration; to illustrate “Put out the light, and then put out the light” he blows out a candle that’s burning at both ends. For “The 15 Minutes Show” a guest from the crowd is brought onstage and interviewed; the night I was there, a soft-spoken laundryman shyly described his work. In “Honestly” a cast member answers “yes or no” inquiries from the audience as truthfully as the moment or the dumb questions allow.
