THE HANGOVER REPORT – The Wooster Group channels Richard Foreman in its relentlessly surreal revival of SYMPHONY OF RATS

Michaela Murphy, Niall Cunningham, Jim Fletcher, and Ari Fliakos in The Wooster Group’s production of Richard Foreman’s “Symphony of Rats” at the Performing Garage (photo by Spencer Ostrander).

Over at the Performing Garage in Soho, fans of experimental theater will be excited to find currently running the Wooster Group’s revival of Richard Foreman’s relentlessly surreal play Symphony of Rats. Like the Wooster Group, Foremen has long been associated with New York’s avant-garde theater scene — in fact, his original 1988 production of Symphony of Rats also played at the Performing Garage, the Wooster Group’s longtime home base.

As conceived by Foreman — who retired from theater-making a decade ago — the piece is in essence a dreamlike journey into the psyche of the President of the United States. Over the course of its dizzying 75 minutes, viewers will be subject to a phantasmagorical fantasia involving contact with aliens, run-ins with a giant rat, among other random occurences — in short, Symphony of Rats is vintage Foreman. Indeed, those who attempt to decode the piece may find themselves frustrated. But seen as an act of dismantling power structures (even those in power are subiect to the whims of human folly and external forces) and an allegory for a world that’s increasingly devoid of meaning, viewers can simply bask in the absurdity of it all. Although much about the staging is playful, there’s a dark and menacing underpinning that seems to signal a warning that human civilization is fast approaching a dire, even cataclysmic, end state.

The current Wooster Group overlay — which is directed by veteran experimental theater artists Elizabeth LeCompte and Kate Valk — pays overt homage to the Foreman aesthetic (e.g., the web of wires that crisscross the stage, the general fun house aesthetic), setting the proceedings in a sort of spaceship of the mind. In addition, as per usual for the company, this iteration of Symphony of Rats weaves in multimedia elements, often to cheeky effect. And as led by Ari Fliakos (as the President) and Jim Fletcher, the performances across the board are rigorous and playfully deadpan.

RECOMMENDED

SYMPHONY OF RATS
Off-Broadway, Play
The Wooster Group at the Performing Garage
1 hour, 15 minutes (without an intermission)
Through May 9

Categories: Off-Broadway, Theater

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