Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – An altered UNDER THE RADAR 2024 kicks off, with experimentalism and eclecticism still at the forefront

• By drediman
• January 16, 2024
• No Comments

Last week, Under the Radar 2024 kicked off after concerns of of whether it would actually even transpire. Although no longer under the auspices of the Public Theater, this year’s lineup — a bold collaboration amongst some of the city’s premier purveyors of adventurous theater — retains the experimentalism and the eclecticism that has been the trademark of this essential performing arts festival. Here are my thoughts on last week’s opening crop of shows.

SEARCH PARTY
By Inua Ellams
Lincoln Center, Clark Studio

First up was Inua Ellams’ Search Party (RECOMMENDED) at the Clark Studio at Lincoln Center. Essentially, the “show” is an informal evening with Ellams, who reads from his vast collection of poems and essays on wide-ranging topics — the selections are determined by search words provided by audience members — to entertain and, hopefully, enlighten. Ellams is a deeply thoughtful artist, which is exhibited both in his writing, as well as his easy interaction with the audience. Indeed, with his affable and approachable personality, I couldn’t have asked for a gentler way to usher in Under the Radar 2024.

THE FIRST BAD MAN
By Pan Pan
Lincoln Center, Samuel Rehearsal Studio

Over at the Samuel Rehearsal Studio — also at Lincoln Center — I attended Pan Pan’s production of The First Bad Man (RECOMMENDED), an offbeat stage adaptation of Miranda July’s novel of the same name. Framed as a book club session in which members re-enact the novel, the folks at Pan Pan aim to immerse and unsettle viewers, just as the novel does its readers. Employing a heightened, surreal presentation, the production strikes a satiric, deadpan tone that’s at once clear-eyed and jarringly stylized. Throughout, the acting is cut from the same cloth, thereby sustaining a mood that remains unbroken from beginning to end.

QUEENS OF SHEBA
By Jessica L. Hagan and Ryan Calais Cameron
Lincoln Center, Clark Studio

Then back at the Clark Studio, I attended a performance of Queens of Sheba (SOMEWHAT RECOMMENDED) by Jessica L. Hagan and Ryan Calais Cameron. The creators have taken unmistakable inspiration from Ntozake Shange’s for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf. Despite its admirable attempt at depicting the struggles faced by women of color and subsequently empower them through movement and spoken word, Queens treads familiar ground and ultimately fails to reach the poetic heights of Shange’s seminal 1976 choreo-poem. Nevertheless, the ensemble performances by the all-female cast were tight and ebullient.

THIS HOUSE IS NOT A HOME
By Nile Harris
Abrons Arts Center

The last of this first crop of Under the Radar 2024 offerings was Nile Harris’s This House is Not a Home (RECOMMENDED). Staged down at Abrons Arts Center in the Lower East Side, this multidisciplinary fantasia of a show presents itself as an anything goes experience — harkening the intoxicating energy of New York’s fabled avant-garde scene of yore — that investigates the racial and socio-economic realities of living in contemporary America. In reality, however, it’s all controlled chaos until we come face-to-face with Crackhead Barney, a confrontational force of nature who ignites the stage with her unfiltered outrageousness. Harris, on the other hand, is a welcome counterpoint — calculated, self-referential, and playful.