Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – More UNDER THE RADAR 2024: Concluding with a flurry of presentations that challenge established boundaries and perspectives

• By drediman
• January 23, 2024
• No Comments

This past weekend, Under the Radar 2024 successfully concluded with a flurry of presentations that outright challenged established boundaries and perspectives. As per usual, here are my thoughts.

CULTURAL EXCHANGE RATE
By Tania El Khoury
The Invisible Dog Art Center

First up was Tania El Khoury’s Cultural Exchange Rate (RECOMMENDED) at the Invisible Dog Art Center. In essence, the piece is an immersive multimedia art installation that documents the migratory history of El Khoury’s family. Living in constant exile, they’ve survived on the fringes of society, namely in a border community between Lebanon and Syria, as well as in Mexico. Through a series of hand-crafted dioramas concealed within locked containers — as well as a few other interactive surprises along the way (no spoilers here) — El Khoury questions the notion of nationality, both in terms of identity and physical borders. Her forensic attention to detail and careful documentation (including intimate conversations with family members) bring an intensely personal dimension to a global phenomenon that deserves greater visibility.

ROSE: YOU ARE WHO YOU EAT
By John Jarboe
La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club

Then over at La MaMa’s Downstairs space, there was John Jarboe’s Rose: You Are Who You Eat (RECOMMENDED). Like Tania El Khoury’s Cultural Exchange Rate, the piece is a personal confessional, this time in the form of an avant-garde cabaret performance. Having established that he consumed his twin sister (the titular Rose) in their mother’s womb, Jarboe — an immensely likeable performer you can’t help but cheer for — embarks on a quirky memoir chronicling his coming-of-age (and coming out) story. Backed by his band The Bearded Ladies Cabaret, Jarboe infuses song and ample imagery into his tale, culminating in a gorgeous fantasia of self-actualization that transcends gender boundaries and reunites him with Rose. As directed by MIK Tumanen, the current iteration of the show channels the transformative journey of Hedwig and the Angry Inch and the irresistibly extravagantly outlandish aesthetic of Taylor Mac.

OUR CLASS
By Tadeusz Słobodzianek and adapted for the stage by Norman Allen
Brooklyn Academy of Music

Of this last bunch, the Tadeusz Slobodzianek’s Our Class (RECOMMENDED) ironically stood out because of its merits as a relatively conventional piece of theater. Indeed, unlike the other festival offerings, the play — adapted by Norman Allen — doesn’t necessarily scream experimental theater. Nevertheless, this timely, deeply disturbing true story demands to be seen, regardless of the platform. Spanning eight decades, Our Class tells the story of ten Polish classmates (five Jews, five Catholics) who are mercilessly pitted against each other during Poland’s Soviet and Nazi occupations, thereby testing their identities and allegiances. Although comparisons to recent plays like Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt and Joshua Harmon’s Prayer for the French Republicare inevitable, the play distinguishes itself for actually depicting the horrific antisemitic atrocities of the time as opposed to merely referring to them. Throughout, the ensemble acting is nothing less than expert, and Igor Golyak’s actively inventive staging — set in a stylized classroom — captures the imagination. Clocking in at just about three hours, the momentum occasionally flags, but that’s to be expected for a story this sprawling.

THE EAGLE AND THE TORTOISE
By Sister Sylvester
BRIC

My Under the Radar adventures concluded with Sister Sylvester’s The Eagle and the Tortoise (RECOMMENDED), which enjoyed its North American premiere at BRIC in Brooklyn. Part multimedia performance — including the live contributions of a narrator, guitarist, and puppeteer — and part communal reading session, the show defies easy categorization. In short, the work is a meditation on perspective vis-à-vis the slippery true story of a young woman whose prismatic life was anything but black and white. Using a hand-crafted book as the nexus of the experience, The Eagle and Tortoise elegantly toggles between myth and documentary, creating a uniquely contemplative experience that invites audiences to reflect on how they process media, culture/society, and their own life events.