Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Quirky entertainments that gently upend performative conventions: Ikechukwu Ufomadu’s AMUSEMENTS and The Civilians’ ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS

• By drediman
• November 27, 2023
• No Comments

Thus past week, I came across two quirky Off-Broadway shows that gently upended performative conventions – one as it relates to stand-up comedy, the other to musical theater. Read on for my thoughts.

AMUSEMENTS
Playwrights Horizons
In repertory through December 3

Then over at Playwrights Horizons’ Peter Jay Sharp Theatre, you’ll currently find Ikechukwu Ufomadu’s one man show Amusements (RECOMMENDED) wrapping up performances (the show is playing in repertory with two other solo shows, Alexandra Tatarsky’s Sad Boys in Harpy Land and Milo Cramer’s School Pictures). Those expecting a standard comedy set, be forewarned — Ufomadu’s deliberately measured brand of humor is very specific, and in my opinion, a refreshing change of pace from standard fare. By insistently — but ever so smoothly, gently — leaning in on the obvious, he creates distinctive humor out of the most elementary material (has “The ABC’s” ditty ever registered so hilariously?), at times challenging the notions of words and meaning, thereby ushering us into realms of the absurd. The result is a show that straddles both performance art and comedy. As a performer, Ufomadu comes across as a lovably amiable, amusingly befuddled personality, which allows him (and director Nemuna Ceesay) to stealthily upend our preconceptions on what constitutes funny.

ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS
The Civilians at 59E59 Theaters
Closed

Recently concluding its limited run Off-Broadway at 59E59 Theaters was Artificial Flavors (RECOMMENDED), The Civilians’ latest exploration of the “real” through theater. With the rapid rise of artificial intelligence, the show playfully questions the merits of theater as generated by such technology. Despite its high concept premise — after an informative primer, the piece proceeds to have ChatGPT “write” a musical on-the-spot — the show is admittedly only lightly speculative, instead finding true theatrical life in the flesh-and-blood performances that breathe life into the auto-generated musical. This is isn’t surprising given the nascency of AI tools like ChatGPT, but this experiment by the ever-inquisitive folks at The Civilians does suggest that the future remains an unknown frontier, arguing neither for nor against the eventual impact that these inevitable advances will make on theater-making. But for the moment, we should give credit where credit is due — Steve Cosson (The Civilians’ artistic director) for his geeky but heady curation and his very smart ensemble cast for bringing inspired vitality to their sharply-drawn, improv-driven performances.