Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Downtown solo shows that obliterate the fourth wall: Ivo Dimchev’s METCH and Nina Conti’s THE DATING SHOW

• By drediman
• February 26, 2024
• No Comments

This past week, I had the chance to catch up with two downtown solo shows that thoroughly obliterated the fourth wall. Read on for my thoughts.

IVO DIMCHEV: METCH
La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club
Closed

This past weekend at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, I attended the final performance of Ivo Dimchev’s METCH (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED). An acronym for “Music, Exhibition, Text, and Choreography”, this latest creation is a seemingly haphazard mash-up of performance styles that both parodies and excavates the act of performance — as only Dimchev can. He was last seen at the venerable East 4th Street venue last fall in Hell with Jesus/Top 40, and this follow-up proves that the growing hype around the Bulgarian performance artist was no fluke. More structured and focused than Hell with Jesus, METCH is organized around an art exhibition of Dimchev’s unabashedly explicit paintings. Pushing the boundaries of what constitutes audience interaction (his last show had audience members simulate sex onstage) and his own physical limitations (e.g., each song in METCH was preceded by ten pushups), these shows are invariably unpredictable, wild rides — meaning that no two shows are ever the same. Despite the focus on visual art, METCH‘s center of gravity lies in Dimchev’s kitschy but strangely compelling songs, which are sung both in English and Bulgarian. Collectively, they capture the performer’s singularly bizarre sense of humor and impulsive tendencies. I’m eager to see what outrageous creation Dimchev has up his sleeves next.

NINA CONTI: THE DATING SHOW
SoHo Playhouse
Through March 3

Just as interactive but more approachable is Nina Conti’s solo show The Dating Game (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), which is currently running downtown at SoHo Playhouse. Having scored a hit at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the British ventriloquist has decided to take her unique show on the road — and thank God she has. Like Dimchev, Conti’s shows necessarily thrive and fundamentally rely on interaction, using us the audience as fodder to demonstrate her sensationally quick wit and surprisingly raunchy sense of humor. Indeed, upon first exposure, Conti comes across as an affable, proper British woman with an odd penchant/talent for ventriloquism. It soon becomes evident, however, where her mind is at. Indeed, accompanied only by her adorable monkey sidekick — voiced and manually operated by Conti herself, of course — she rips through the set (complete with a very funny speed dating segment), invariably keeping one step of her willing participants and the rest of the audience. Although it’s easy to marvel at Conti’s considerable ventriloquist skills, I was most impressed by her ability to instantaneously reading people, leveraging her observations to hilarious ends. Happily, The Dating Game doesn’t outstay its welcome (the whole thing lasts approximately an hour), keeping its novelty well intact — even to warrant repeat visits.