What do cell phones, natural disasters, and the industrial revolution have in common? LOL: The End (written and performed by Michi Ilona Osato, Una Aya Osato, and Yoshimasa “Sen” Osato) sets out to investigate how the world got to where it is, starting with Man’s earliest domination over nature in order to create shelter, and ending with the isolation that can occur as Man becomes more and more enmeshed in the virtual world of hand-held devices.  Though there are less than a dozen words squeaked out in this dense multimedia interaction (which includes curated new media samples from YouTube, ultramodern kabukesque pieces of clowning, and interpretive dance) the message of this show is still clearly vital, diversified, and meaningful.

The central push of this piece is to show how our scramble for comfort is never-ending and essentially the more we have the more our smaller problems require higher costs to avoid them. The end of the world has never been so engrossing as with the physical comedy and funny dramatic redirections of the audience by Michi as the personification of Greed with its quest to maintain power over others. She sets us in our place while we have pity for Una’s embodiment of the innocence of the havenots around the world and throughout history.

As the story progresses we are given an evolving view and review showing that sometimes those who don’t have the most (or are the  meekest – or most friendly) can actually be  the great causers of  disaster even if they are also the most abused.   They are like drowning victims who will desperately pull down anyone or anything along with them as they sink to the bottom.  Yoshimasa, as the face of the Earth  (or more elusive “Nature”) shows how the earth is patient, but can be irritated at the ridiculousness of Man’s desire to remake the world into something safer and easier to control yet only manages to make it less stable.   While LOL is light-hearted in its depiction of our moves toward disaster, the overall message is more hard-hitting than many documentaries on the subject.  This is perhaps because we can identify with the characters so readily.  With so much meaning laden on so little verbal communication, kudos must be given to the director Moises Belizario who had a lot to orchestrate in this piece. With the sheer number and requirement for precise arrangement, stage manager Clarissa Ligon should get a shout out as well.  The multimedia portions of the show were divided between the sometimes driving and sometimes serene music of Yuri Ryback and Jordan Battiste, as well as by the careful video curation and editing done by Una Aya Osato and Michi Ilona Osato.

Performers from left to right: Una Aya Osato, Michi Ilona Osato, and their father Yoshimasa "Sen" Osato

The beginning of this play, I believe, was intentionally a bit alien and hard to understand; the mysticism of the past which ruled us is so much less in control now-a-days. The dialogue between the three on stage at first seems almost like an abstract dance celebrating color and emotion. By the end of the show the audience is shown a postapocalyptic world where humankind is reduced back to their primal state by a believable set of circumstances.

We see the dance with death, the wonder and the magic of how we react to the power of “disasters” celebrated again by those now newly primitive, echoing the beginning of the play.  In this beautiful yet horrifying dance toward the end, we see the black veil of death alternating with the bright red of fire, blue of water disasters, and even white of disasters of the air in a way that clearly shows the sort of fear modern people could find if our filters of  intervening media of various types were removed.  In this very much the-end-is-the-beginning-is-the-end sort of moment, we realize that most likely, no matter what we do, it is possible the world will go on even if civilization is swept aside by human carelessness.  It becomes quite humbling to see the end where everything returns back to square one, except for the relics of the past strewn around a new landscape.  Like the myths of giants who caused the mountains, the somber peace that enshrouded the audience after the rush of symbolic destruction was palpable.

The image of Yoshimasa as the calmed Earth Spirit in the end  covering his children with a dark veil, with a look of compassion yet a hint of bewilderment and the remaining covering of bright pink hair (representing I think the lasting spiritual miasma which would stay with the earth) that ends the play is  one that will stay with me for a long time.  Try to fit this show in if you can, and you will likely get a lot to reflect on for many days to come.

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The 2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL will run February 22-March 4 at The Kraine Theater & The Red Room (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Ave and Bowery) and UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place between 1st Ave and Ave A). Tickets to all shows may be purchased online at www.FRIGIDnewyork.info or by calling Smarttix at 212-868-4444.

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My parents spent a great deal of money on my education. First they chose a strict parochial grammar school for 8 years, then I was sent off to an exclusive prep school for 4 years, and finally my education was capped off with a fancy private college. All this was done to ensure that I had a good working knowledge of the world. Yet my European-born mother still sadly shakes her head when I make such public blunders as exclaiming to a roomful of people that I have no idea where Holland is in relation to Norway. “I always thought they were the same place!” I remark, blithely, with not even a hint of embarrassment. “Aren’t they, though?” I go on – digging the hole deeper. Oh – American Education – how you failed me.  Surely someone could have made politics, history, and geography stick in my brain in a way that made sense so that I don’t continually shame my family?

After spending a night with Colin Quinn as he delivered his one-man show Long Story Short (directed by Jerry Seinfeld)  it’s obvious that he was that someone.   Colin Quinn is like that teacher who comes into the urban school and makes all the tough kids love learning.  But he already knows that.  In fact, at some point during Long Story Short, he even does a spot on send-up of every To Sir With Love / Stand and Deliver / Dangerous Minds movie ever spit out by Hollywood — though his version ends with the teacher taking a job at the cushy prep school at the end of it all.  The very prep school where I would have benefited so much!  So you see how we’ve come full circle here.  But wait!  That’s only the introduction . . .

By anthropomorphizing (see, there’s your fancy private college education!) countries into spurned jealous lovers, hedonistic stoners, single-minded over achievers, disinterested, sarcastic fashionistas, brooding, depressed fatalists and cocky barroom brawlers, Quinn was finally able to make sense of history for me. And all in 75 minutes, no less.

Backed only by a rear screen projection and some huge steps that at any given moment can act as a Greek Theatre, a Roman Colosseum or a Mayan Temple (scenic and projection design by David Gallo) Quinn delivers sharp observations and gives a copious lesson of the world by way of a steady stream of dead-on interpretations that illustrate where we came from and where we are now.

“An unexamined life is not worth living”, said the Greeks – and yet, Quinn continues, for all this examination we’re doing these days, are we any richer for it? Glance at any Twitter stream or Facebook news feed – truly: do we need to be examining ourselves this much in order to know who we are?

So, the lesson begins in Greece as we start in the cradle of civilization. The Greeks – who invented the Gods so that people could blame their problems on something and who also invented Theatre so they could gossip about their neighbors. (Oedipus: Hey – that show last night? Was that about me? Sophocles: No! What? No! Oedipus: Cause, you know, I killed my father and then slept with my mother. Just saying.   Sounded like you were talking about me. Sophocles: Yeah? Really?  No – no. It’s based on a lot of people I know. It’s a compilation.).

Quinn goes into Magellan mode, circumnavigating the globe and no culture, civilization, or stereotype is left unexamined.  Quinn’s talent for boiling down the essence of entire countries, equally highlighting their failings as well as their fortunes makes for a hilarious world tour.   From the Holy Roman Empire (who were covered in more jewels than the attendees at a Death Row Records release party), to The British Empire  (the small country who controlled the world not with Might but with Contempt), to the French who were portrayed as England’s emotionally distant, but somewhat interested lover  (whose Facebook Relationship Status would have been “It’s Complicated“) – this all crystallized years of history for me.  Oh – NOW I get it.

There’s more of course: The Mayans, hanging out and smoking pot on the biggest stoop in the world, The Russians who (unlike the Americans, who are continually in the pursuit of happiness) perfected the art of being depressed, The Chinese (One Country, One Leader, One Haircut). No one escapes as Quinn does spot on accents yet teaches a lesson that would put any history teacher to shame.

By then end, when Quinn turns the entire world into a bar at 3am – with the United States as a cocky redneck who had a few too many and is itching for a fight, insisting that Iraq was hiding a gun, and taking the fight out into the parking lot where the world’s countries are hanging out  in assorted stages of inebriation and various levels of booze-inspired loyalty, well – the moment is inspired brilliance. From Quinn’s ability to transition effortlessly from one culture to another, to just the way he shows that, when boiled down, it really all amounts to the same thing – well, that bit alone required a standing ovation.

Which Quinn got – deservedly – at the end of his 75 minutes.

Simply put – this is a smart show that delivers big laughs. A must-see for anyone who really wants to understand the George Santayana quote “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. If you’ve only had a passing acquaintance with Colin Quinn all these years, you’ll leave The Helen Hayes theatre a huge fan. If you already start out as a fan, you’ll have renewed appreciation for Quinn’s deft comic timing and his spot-on observations.  No matter how you walked in, you’ll walk out with a little more understanding of your fellow man.  You know – That Guy.

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Related Posts:

• #mormoninchief’s Boring Campaign (Fringe Festival 2012)
• LOL:The End – Beginning And End (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)