Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – The immersive COUNTING SHEEP thrusts its audiences deep into revolution

• By drediman
• December 8, 2017
• No Comments

The company of “Counting Sheep” at 3LD Art & Technology Center.

I recently had a chance to catch Counting Sheep, aptly subtitled “an immersive guerilla folk opera” at the 3LD Art & Technology Center in downtown Manhattan. The piece, created by the husband and wife team of Mark and Marichka Marczyk, is inspired by their personal experience partaking in the 2013/2014 Maiden revolution in the Ukraine. In Counting Sheep, the Marczyks endeavor to replicate, mostly successfully, the visceral thrill and chaos of revolution.

First the good. I thought the show does an admirable job of thrusting the audience into a world of disorder and senselessness. The show transitions from festivity, to fear, to anger, to resilience, to dire need in seemingly random waves and surprising bursts of activity. This is what being in the midst of a mob must feel like. Smartly, the audience rarely sees the enemy, adding to our developing solidarity. What’s missing, however, was a sense of danger – not once did I feel that my life nor the lives of my comrades were at stake. I think that perhaps a less stylized approach may have fixed some of this.

One of the the most compelling aspect of the performance for me was the music, which was provided by Toronto’s Lemon Bucket Orchestra. Their sound for Counting Sheep is essentially folk music, but seductively tinged with hints of funk and punk. They are the heartbeat of this fascinating, if necessarily disjointed – and therefore not fully satisfying – immersive experience.

RECOMMENDED

COUNTING SHEEP
Off-Broadway, Musical/Opera/Performance Art
3LD Art & Technology Center
1 hour, 30 minutes (without an intermission)
Through December 17