Hand2Mouth Theatre
September 11, 2007; closes September 15, 2007
Put out more flags. There is an almost folkloric terror on display here. Alternating cheerful and grim-faced anthems about “lighting up your world like the fourth of July” expose the imperial anger and arrogance of America, while at the same time making us laugh. Highly charged visuals mostly dominate words.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
15 comments:
http://blog.oregonlive.com/aenow/2007/09/tba_review_hand2mouth_theatres.html
Nonsense.
Except that this show was crap and the Oregonian is right on. See, that's the thing about over-using irony: it opens you up to a world of criticism. When you not only hide your hand, but poke fun at those who show theirs, you establish a position of supremacy. But with that position comes a responsibility to substanciate it. To deserve it. And these folks don't. Saying something over and over again doesn't make it true. Hand2Mouth should know that at the very least. Isn't that what their enemy does??? Theatre, at it's best, is always about truth. This show just hides in the shadows and laughs by itself.
God, it's sad that the Oregonian will publish such shoddy work even on their blog. I don't think the person who wrote it has much experience of contemporary performance, much less a sense of humor.
H2M honestly engaged the material they were working with. You can feel their enjoyment of performing it even if they may not agree with the views of the author. One of the commentors on the Oregonian site got it right, "Hand2Mouth wasn't make fun of red state people. They were making fun of the blind, unquestioning loyalty the current administration in Washington expects from us all."
It's really dis-heartning how easily people can be convinced something is "deep" or "relevent" b/c of some buzz words. It works for the Government and ART too it would seem. Chaos and dis-order is simply that and if the audience can't follow you it's not b/c they are dim but b/c YOU did a poor job.
The issues mentioned in O review are dead on. H2M should take these as helpful feedback. Use the comments to improve the show. Make it great.
Don't just shut these comments out. There is a lot of truth in them. That does not mean the show is not also good. But it could be better.
It really doesn't matter who they were making fun of, it was a bad show. Crap is crap, regardless of its intention.
It was excellent Saturday evening. Spot-on vocals, intense audience interaction, and thought-provoking. Much tighter all around than the spring run. No plot, but, hey, that's contemporary performance art for you. Plot, or even coherence, aren't the point. Hand2Mouth is probably the most avant-garde company we have in town. Whether that's good or bad is a matter of opinion.
I could have done without the "sex on the beach" opener, though.
If there is no plot and it isn't coherent then IT IS NOT THEATRE. It is something else and that's ok but stop trying to covince people this crap is theatre. It didn't work for Annie Sprinkle so why should we accept it from these clowns b/c people like to say it's avant garde.
Last time I checked the only requirements for theatre were performers and an audience. Drunk post?
If that's the case, then dance is theatre, concerts are theatre, lectures are theatre, Town Hall meetings are theatre, church services are theatre, weddings are theatre, sporting events are theatre, pole dances are theatre, Benihana restaurants are theatre, the list goes on. In terms of the big picture , all these things could certainly be called human theatre. Hopefully we're looking to be a little more discerning than that.
Also, it's a false argument. All theatre needs is a performer and an audience, but that doesn't necessarily mean than any place where there is a performance and an audience is theatre.
I think you're right, Anonymous 6:39. We're going to change our name from Hand2Mouth Theatre to Hand2Mouth Crap.
Also: did Annie Sprinkle call her work theatre? I thought she called it performance art.
Some people are inspired by the cross-pollination of categories -- theatre and dance and performance art, for instance -- and some people are clearly inflamed by it. Not much we can do about that. We're just going to continue to make work that is either crass, offensive and excruciating or provocative, ambiguous and exhilarating, depending on your point of view.
Anonymous 8:37--
"any place where there is a performance and an audience is theatre." That's about right!
I don't want to get too into this, but to say "If there is no plot and it isn't coherent then IT IS NOT THEATRE" is just patently asinine.
If someone wants to make the claim that it is not NARRATIVE THEATRE, then, yeah, Ok, you might have a point.
To be honest I felt that the piece did have a plot line,though expressed on a subtextural level. It also seemed quite coherent as an impressionistic work.
Whatever the case, or whether you like the piece or not, Theatre is MUCH bigger than Narrative Performance, and has been since the surrealists, dadaists, etc.
And you know, the CA in PICA is for Contemporary Art. It should piss some people off.
Historically speaking, that's what it does.
I'm pretty sure that every negative thing posted here was by the same angry person. I think that means one thing....JEALOUSSSS!!! Also their too afraid to commit to their beliefs as well - hence the anonymous posting!
If you wanted to see Oklahoma! you shouldn't have gone to a COMTEMPORARY ART festival!! Hand2Mouth is lovely and challenges things that regular boring ol' theatre doesn't - which like the person above me said - SHOULD piss some people off, and their usually the ones who deserve to be pissed off.
ROCK ON H2M!!!!
Post a Comment