Performances
I’ve been fairly busy with work this week, so it’s nice that I’ve twice been able to get out and take in a dose of something you might call art.
On Tuesday, my friend John came down from Portland and he, Ez, and I all went to see Deerhoof at the Middle East. The opening acts were a mixed bag–to put it kindly. First up was L’Ocelle Mare. Honestly, I didn’t think he was so bad. He basically did these sort of spastic little one-man jams on an electrified acoustic guitar, clomping his feet down on some boards and using various other little musical devices here and there (bells, rattles, a harmonica, etc.). It was sort of abstract–not really your typical music. I can’t say that I loved it, but he was charming–kept grinning and nodding sheepishly at the end of each piece–and it wasn’t horrible.
I’m a little mixed up on the order of things, but I think next up was the evening’s first selection of films by Martha Colburn. Like the opening acts as a whole, these were a mixed bag. I kind of liked the brightness and brash colorfulness of them, and some of the images were fun. I feel like the second batch of films, which came later, was less impressive because it seemed to be harping over and over on the same somewhat meaningless sexual imagery. I was surrounded by a bunch of guffawing college guys, and they all really liked the sex films, if that tells you anything.
The second musical act was Le Ton Mite. I found him tiring and a bit embarrassing. I don’t know… his schtick (as Ezra would say) just didn’t work for me.
After another round of films, we were all told that we had to step back and clear a space of about 1/4 of the entire floor, as this would be the “stage” for the Leg & Pants Dans Theeatre performance. This was really annoying and awkward, and it underscores my main problem with their part of the show–it just would have worked much better in a different space and setting. Half of the audience really wasn’t interested, and forcing the audience to crush together and then sit down on top of each other on a dirty, nasty floor didn’t exactly draw us in.
But putting all of that aside… there were some things about their performance that I really liked. They used slides, and that might have worked well if they’d had someone other than one of the dancers actually advancing the slides and if the slides had been projected larger–maybe on a bigger screen. The speaking part that went along with their dance was a bit silly. Maybe if they hadn’t been preceded by Le Ton Mite I would have taken that aspect of their performance more seriously. Visually, I liked a good bit of what they did. I had fun taking photos of their performance. It would have been even more fun to photograph if I hadn’t been jammed in on the floor with my knees on random guys’ elbows and such.
Then, finally, Deerhoof played. By then, Ezra had succumb to his illness and had to go home. It’s a shame, because beyond the experience/spectacle aspect of the opening acts, Ezra really missed what was–by about a mile–the most worthwhile portion of the night. Deerhoof were quite good–and very loud. They played a lot of songs from their latest record. Their music is a little hard to describe, but I guess I’d say it’s experimental, arty, and noisy. Sometimes I hear jazz and funk in their music, and halfway through their set last night, I thought of My Bloody Valentine. I guess I wasn’t far off, because for their encore they did a cover of one of my favorite My Bloody Valentine songs, “Lose My Breath.” (I overheard one of their guitarists telling someone after the show that it was the first time they’d played that song live.) My vantage point and the lighting weren’t conducive to great picture-taking, but of course I snapped away regardless.
Then, last night, Ez and I saw Sartre’s No Exit at the ART (American Repertory Theatre). Though it’s a very famous play, and though the basic gist is apparent from its title, it was new to me because I’d never seen nor read it. The cast was phenomenal–we’ve seen each of the four actors in other ART productions and they’re all very good. Karen MacDonald, who plays Estelle, is one of my personal favorites. She was fantastic as Simonne Evrard in Marat/Sade (which, by the way, was mind-blowingly great and one of the best theatrical performances I’ve ever seen). Paula Plum is great as Inez. I’d seen her in Lysistrata, and maybe something else, too, but I don’t feel like I really saw her in a great role until last night.
I suppose the big and obvious “wow” about this performance that knocks people out right off is the staging. The audience sits in a U-shape around the elevated square stage. The stage is on some kind of central pivot, and it literally rises and falls with the weight of the actors as they move across it. This makes for some very striking stuff. As Ezra said, if cameras were allowed, you would be seeing loads of pictures (the photo above is from the ART site). I found the set very surrealist–the stage suspended in space, with lighting that literally made it appear as though it existed more or less in nothing, a classical sculpture in one corner, a tall door leading to nowhere, no walls. It’s a sparse scene with a few brightly colored objects thrown in.
This Boston Globe article says a few interesting things about this version and the play itself. Really, we’re lucky to have the ART here.
I sure wish I’d felt well enough to see Deerhoof . . . oh well, maybe next time they come around, the opening acts won’t be such a mixed bag (and there won’t be so doggone many).
It would have been fun if you could have come–alas! But there will be other opportunities to see them, I think. Anyway, I for one was surrounded by goofy college boys. If Ezra and John would have been a bit closer to me, I would have made a blanket call.