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"What is there left for us that have seen the newly discovered
stability of things changed from enthusiasm to weariness but to rediscover
an art of the theatre, which shall be joyful, fantastic, extravagant,
whimsical, beautiful, resonant, and altogether RECKLESS?"
-- William Butler Yeats
1901 |
Have play, will travel. But now there's a permanent address, the newly dubbed Manny Fried Playhouse. The high, boxy third-floor space is perfect for minimalist Schneiderman's experimental offerings, where a set is secondary and the themes out of the ordinary. Finally, for Subversive, a home. Witness its latest work, "Ouroboros" -- from the Greek, "tail devourer" -- a "physical poem" by a bright, young actor/ writer/director, Brian Zybala. This is a 50-minute "exploration of the cyclical nature of the human experience," a night of few words, sounds both soothing and startling, movement and mime guiding a sometimes gentle and loving, often violent peek at human behavior since the Garden of Eden through 9/11 to a seemingly final optimistic moment of hope. Or, maybe not. A cast of eight -- five females, three males, a tribe -- gather in an ellipse; clean, white sand that becomes a killing field at their feet; hunting, then giving primitive thanks. A segue into male domination, the earliest of glass ceilings, women exploited. Time moves swiftly now: sweatshop labor, harsh seeds of material progress. The sound of airplanes, explosions and chaos: 9/11. Fade to dark until dawn breaks on a Garden of Eden, a sleeping Adam and Eve, a diverse animal kingdom living peacefully and tediously. Until that cursed apple offering. "Ouroboros," that self-destructing, tail-eating serpent symbol steeped in religion and mythology, a favorite of alchemists, starts to come into focus now, playwright Zybala not preaching or inferring, but building toward a Santayanalike recognition of repeating mistakes of the past. That apple. And Cain and Abel. The two brothers argue over something trivial and begin an intense murderous sibling argument. The fight evolves over centuries, the weapons modernize and multiply, and by extension, so, too, the battlegrounds: an endless list of historical bloody places come to mind. In between man's inhumanity to man, there is discovery and wonder in this "Ouroboros" and in the end, marveling at the passage of time, there is cautious optimism for the human race. Zybala and his cast -- collaborators, he says, on the work's development -- seem to put forth hopelessness and hopefulness in equal amounts here. Nothing new, perhaps, and some monotony, but plenty to reflect upon and take home. And that trait, over the months, has been a Subversive gift to its followers. The ensemble includes Yvette Bedgood, Kevin Dennis, Andrea Dudziak, Tamara Hopersberger, Lawrence Rowswell, Kaitlin Russo, Bryan Stoyle and Jenna Winnett.
| Presented by Subversive Theatre through Feb 8 at the Manny Fried Playhouse in the Great Arrow Building, 255 Great Arrow Avenue. For more information, call 408-0499 or visit www.subversivetheatre.org. |
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Copyright (c) 2002-9, Subversive Theatre Collective. All rights reserved. |
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