Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Hideki Noda’s ONE GREEN BOTTLE is an energetic but ultimately tiresome absurdist romp

• By drediman
• March 3, 2020
• No Comments

Hideki Noda, Glyn Pritchard, and Lilo Baur in Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre’s production of “One Green Bottle” by Mr. Noda at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club. Photo by Terry Lin.

This weekend, I caught Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre’s production of One Green Bottle by Hideki Noda. This English version of the play (translated by Will Sharpe) previously visited London’s Soho Theater in 2018 and is now making its New York premiere at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club. Essentially, the play is a cautionary tale of a family whose egocentric individual pursuits incite escalating internal bickering, leading to their in their collective demise.

One Green Bottle uses Japanese noh and kabuki traditions – as well as Western absurdist and existentialist theater (think Jean Paul Sartre’s No Exit and Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot) – to convey the catastrophic endgame of contemporary living, which places a premium on selfish instant gratification above all else. On paper, this sounds like a fascinating experiment. However, in execution, there’s something decidedly naive and ultimately tiresome about Mr. Noda’s highly-physical sociological exploration, whose critique strikes me as shallow in its blaring two dimensionality (in its defense, the production does seem designed to be a sort of cartoon). As a result, despite its slight running time of just over an hour and energetic staging, the juvenile slapstick so central to the production eventually devolves into dulling monotony.

Mr. Noda also directs, as well as stars in the romp. His production boasts a colorful, amusing funhouse look and a striking aural landscape comprised of traditional Japanese accompaniment (played live, compellingly) and a whimsical, foley-esque soundtrack. Although the production is carefully choreographed, the use of noh and kabuki feels haphazardly implemented, somehow cheapening those revered Japanese theatrical forms. Nonetheless, Mr. Noda does well to give One Green Bottle a sustained sense of mayhem, thanks largely to the demonstratively over-the-top, gender-bending performances of Mr. Noda, Glyn Pritchard, and Lilo Baur.

SOMEWHAT RECOMMENDED

ONE GREEN BOTTLE
Off-Broadway, Play
Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre / La MaMa Experimental Theater
1 hour, 10 minutes (without an intermission)
Through March 8