THE HANGOVER REPORT – ICONS/IDOLS: IN THE PURPLE ROOM is a scrappy but ambitious hybrid of choral drama and immersive installation

A scene from Helen Banner, Grace Oberhofer, and Afsoon Pajoufar’s “Icons/Idols: In the Purple Room” a the New Ohio Theatre.

This weekend at the New Ohio Theatre, I attended Icons/Idols: In the Purple Room presented by Byzantine Choral Project, a music theater company that champions women’s voices (both cis and trans). Accurately advertised as a “choral drama and immersive installation”, the hybrid production features music by Grace Oberhofer, book and lyrics by Helen Banner, and installation design by Afsoon Pajoufar. The piece – the first of entry in a tetralogy of choral plays inspired by a trio of Byzantine empresses – tells the story of Irene, the first of these empresses, and her labyrinthine, Game of Thrones-esque tribulations (both political and personal) as queen of the land.

Out of necessity, theater-makers over the past month (live performances resumed on April 2) have had to come up with creative ways to present their craft in a manner that meets health and safety guidelines for in-person performances. At times, this has resulted in fascinating hybrid productions that otherwise probably wouldn’t have been conceived of. This is certainly the case for In the Purple Room, which the creative team decided to stage as a performer-less, audio-driven art installation as opposed to a traditionally mounted music theater piece with live singers and actors. The immersive production at the unrecognizable New Ohio calls to mind Blindness – the hit production currently playing the Daryl Roth Theatre – which similarly uses recorded audio narrative and artfully rendered design elements to evoke its tale.

While In the Purple Room doesn’t nearly have the budget of Blindness, the production does has scope and ambition to spare. Although Ms. Pajoufar’s multi-room designs have a decidedly scrappy aesthetic (however, the physical hub of the experience – the titular “purple room” – is strikingly designed) and Ms. Banner’s book is confusing to say the least, Ms. Oberhofer’s music is accomplished and lushly performed. In its organic, highly emotive qualities, the score calls to mind the haunting compositions of the late Elizabeth Swados. For the most part, the logistics of the 45-minute show went off without a hitch, particularly the carefully monitored crowd control situation.

RECOMMENDED

ICONS/IDOLS: IN THE PURPLE ROOM
Choral drama / Immersive theater / Art installation / In-person
Byzantine Choral Project / New Ohio Theatre
45 minutes
Through May 22

Categories: Music, Off-Broadway, Opera, Other Music, Theater

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