The most effective pieces in this year’s offerings (seen on December 8) don’t have much to do with one another. Some depend on Eliza Burmeister’s goofy gymnasticism, like “Zen and the Art of Flight,” or the politically charged “Dear NRA suggestion box: I would prefer not to be shot in the head.” Like comedy’s threes, it’s the third repetition of the final image of this piece, run in slow motion, that is the visceral payoff. Others are more ensemble pieces, like “Windsprints.” Bilal Dardai’s self-referential multi-layered sound soup “With All the Time I’ve Wasted Browsing the Wikipedia…” is another winner. And then there’s Mary Fons’s exuberant performance art “‘Crush’ (with Potato Stamp Stars)” to bring us back to the creative nexus of second grade art class.
Memo to front-row ticket holders: wear something waterproof.
- Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, created by Greg Allen, written, directed, and performed by The Neo-Futurists, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Washington