The Mini-Fridge Elevenses*

11 Questions, 11 Answers … ZERO calories, and 100% YUMMY!

 *Elevenses is a snack that is similar to afternoon tea, but eaten in the morning and might consist of some cake or biscuits with a cup of coffee or tea. The name refers to the time of day that it is taken: around 11 am. 

initium/finis

Produced by: Theatre Reverb

A lush sci-fi noir told with myth, media, live music, red-light cabaret and Indian dance-theatre. Voyeurism, eroticism and terror converge in this sensual tale of violence and revolution in a futuristic world. This unique, total theatrical experience is the result of a cross-discipline collaboration between artists from the US, Central Europe and Asia.

Show Times:
• Sat. June 30, 5:00pm
• Sun. July 1st, 7:00pm

Answers by: Kristin Arnesen,

co-creator, performer
 

 1. Your tag line is featured above, so we know the PR version of what this play is about. But when you talk to your family and friends, how do you explain the show to them?
Kristin:I tell them it’s like the films Blade Runner and Metropolis mashed up and cradled in Christian and Hindu creation and destruction mythology. It’s a science fiction tale set in a nightclub with violent revolutionary cells, comedy, horror and beautiful and cruel religious myths.

2. Here’s a scenario: After the show some audience members go have a drink. What’s the part of the show you hope they’re discussing?
Kristin:  I hope they’re discussing the way it made them feel. I hope they’re discussing how they felt in the position of voyeurs that we cast them in. And ultimately I hope they’re discussing any ideas the production may have stirred in them about the politics of oppressive hierarchical societies and empires and ethics of violent retaliation.

3. What drives your show – character, theme or plot?
Kristin:  All of the above, though I think character is the primary driving force. The project began as an exploration of the creator/destroyer figure in religious mythology (e.g. Kali, Shiva, Christ as he appears in the Book of Revelation, God as he floods the earth and destroys Sodom, etc.) Our show is largely an exploration of how this figure (or character) manifests itself in different forms but is always driving towards the same harmonizing end.

4. What’s the one thing someone said about the show so far that made you the most proud?
Kristin:  We thought Michelle Augello Page’s review for The Happiest Medium was pretty awesome and insightful but here’s one line an anonymous FRIGID festival goer posted that made us pretty happy:
“If Godard had directed Blade Runner as a stage play, it might look something like this deeply weird-and I mean that in the good way- mixture of sex androids, conspiracies, narration and homages to Marilyn Monroe in Let’s Make Love.” Radical :)

5. Let’s fantasize for a moment. Let’s take the “off-off” off. Imagine this show is on Broadway. What would that change about the production itself?
Kristin:  To put it simply, we would keep the spirit the same but we would add lots of $money$ to this production. Our sci-fi premise includes an internet-like network where things that happen in cyber space can make visceral impact on bodies in the world and we would love to create some stage magic around that… Monitors that things can fly from… T.v. that can make you bleed? Yes please.

6. Taking that one step further – after paying everyone what they’re worth of course, what is the most lavish, luxurious, frivolous thing you would spend money on if there was no constraints? (Think of the helicopter in Miss Saigon).
Kristin:  We’d rig our mythological narrator for aerial entrances and during her tale of Kali’s dance of annihilation, we would have her sing from within a circle of flames.

7. Is there a scene, a moment, anything that gets a completely different reaction depending on the audience that night?
Kristin:  The sushi scene is terrifying to some audiences and a delight to others.

8. What’s your favorite line from the show?
Kristin:  My name’s Lolita and I just have to be-have, because Da-da-da-da Daddy says so– and Daddy’s the tops.

9. Is the world of this play sustainable outside a theatre? In other words … do you think people live the way the characters do? Would you want a world where they do?
Kristin:  People definitely live in captivity, as some of ours do, though the sci-fi future world aspect is certainly not exactly real-world. I definitely wouldn’t want to live in the world of this piece but there are elements of it that we’re headed for now. I think that’s what the science fiction dystopian genre’s all about.

10. You scan the audience and you see a face that stops you dead in your tracks – who is it? And why are you shocked?
Kristin:  Harrison Ford. I hope he’s not here to expire anyone.

11. Time for Elevenses! Go to the mini-fridge of your fantasy hotel. What’s your dream 11:00am snack?
Kristin:  A cheese platter with figs, honey and lots of champagne!

Thanks, Kristin, for having your Elevenses with us here at THM!  We can’t wait to see initium/finis!

If you’d like to catch initium/finis at The Mini-Fridge Festival find out more by clicking this link.

~~~

HORSE TRADE THEATER GROUP IN ASSOCIATION WITH FRIGID NEW YORK PRESENT THE 2012 MINI-FRIDGE

JUNE 28 – JULY 4 @ UNDER ST. MARKS The mini-festival will play at UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place between 1st Avenue and Avenue A) June 28-July 4. Tickets ($15/$12 students & seniors) are available online  or by calling 212-868-4444. 

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There’s a reason that the second rule of Fight Club is the same as the first rule of Fight Club.  Because Tyler Durden (and by extension, author Chuck Palahniuk) understood that it’s human nature to break rules.  First rule of Fight Club – don’t talk about Fight Club.  Second Rule of Fight Club:  DO NOT talk about Fight Club.  So what did people do?

What does this have to do with August Schulenberg’s new play DEINDE?  Simple.  DEINDE – a sci-fi story of quantum biologists who use a  Dineural Entangled Intelligence Network DEvice [a "clumsy acronym, really, not even a real E at the end"] to “loop in” in order to juice their brains so that they can be smart enough to cure a virus that has been killing the world’s population – begins with four simple rules:

1. When using DEINDE do not think of anything other than work.
2. Do not keep the connection to DEINDE live outside of work.
3. Do not use DEINDE to communicate with each other.
4. Do not use DEINDE to accss the world online.

Sounds so easy to follow, right?  So did “Don’t talk about Fight Club” and we all know how that turned out.

The rest of the play is about how those looped in to DEINDE systematically break the rules as they find themselves becoming addicted to the unnameable and unbelievable power that overtakes them, courtesy of this strange and wonderful and terrifying new level of understanding.

The play itself begins with a chess match – a conventional one –  which then thematically unfolds throughout the entire play, on a much more subtle level.  In the first scene the game is being played on a recognizable board and the notion of checkmate has no hidden meaning or agenda. On one side of the board we have Cooper (David Ian Lee) who plays a very analytic and thoughtful game where he tries to see every available move before he proceeds. However he doesn’t have the intuitive leap to be able to move beyond what is in front of him in order to win the match.  On the other side of the board there is the older, wiser Malcolm (Ken Glickfeld) who is the embodiment of 95 years of trial and error.  This dictates not just how he plays a chess match, but how he moves through life.  While it seems that he is using intimidation and brio to distract his opponent in actuality he doesn’t need this slight of hand – he’s won the game anyway, based on his innate knowledge which comes from something that can’t be taught – something that can only be experienced.  By zeroing in on the fatal flaw of his opponent rather than relying on the limitations of his own body of knowledge, he is able to win the game.

DEINDE featuring Isaiah Tanenbaum, Ken Glickfeld, David Ian Lee, Rachael Hip-Flores, and Nitya Vidyasagar (Photo credit Justin Hoch)

DEINDE works with this theme throughout the play;  constantly pitting two sides against each other with much higher stakes, and a checkmate which implies not just the end of a game but perhaps the end of human progress.  The battle is between information vs. intuition, intelligence vs. maturity, wisdom vs. knowledge.  If you’re paying attention it’s easy to see how the moves will play out – but nonetheless thrilling to watch as they unfold.

There’s a lot of science here – this is, after all, a sci-fi tale, but it’s laid out in a way that is conversational, interactive and engaging.  If some of it goes over your head, well, that’s almost the meta-point.

DEINDE is what would happen if Charly and Sybil had a love child who evolved at the speed of light.  If you remember your high school reading assignments, Flowers For Algernon dealt with Charly (or Charlie), a learning-disabled man who is chosen by a team of scientists to boost his intelligence.  As Charly becomes self aware, and soon hyper-intelligent he becomes disenchanted both with his former self as well as those around him whom he once admired.  Similarly, Jenni and Mac – the young, eager (already brilliant) quantum biologists who undergo the DEINDE process find themselves on this same road – unable to return to the blandness of the existence they had before they looped in.  So they simply don’t.

As they further break the rules they become reliant upon the technology, even as they surpass it.  Those around them,  once considered mentors, colleagues and advisers are now considered troglodytes.  Speaking with them is like ”talking through tar” to Jenni and Mac who are on an accelerated path – always.  Further, as they break rule number 3 they find themselves justifying their own behavior to (and with) each other, as they now are “one person in two bodies” who still speak out loud to each other, but in unison because it “feels grounding, like we’re still human in some meaningful way”.  Further they decide they are there “not … to abolish the law but to fulfill Man’s destiny”.  Yes.  They are THAT GOOD. Or so they think.

But there are consequences for breaking the rules.  Not punishments.  Consequences.

Throughout the play in every way director Heather Cohn balances precision with chaos.  Will Lowry’s set and scenic design is awash in mathematical equations, written in a steady hand and proving the undeniable.  Electronic devices are clear lucite and allow for anything since they are beholden to nothing.  Martha Goode’s sound design brings scenes crackling to life with music that is classical, indicating moments which are very calculated and decisive, straightforward and blunt.  This makes the dischord which begins once the rules are broken all the more salient and pronounced – where things once were clear and ordered they are now explosive and uncontrollable.

Similarly the acting is in perfect balance; a composed and measured Nabanita (Nitya Vidyasagar) is in perfect counterbalance to the (at first) bouncy, youthful, Mac (Isaiah Tanenbaum) and Jenni (Rachael Hip-Flores) who move quickly to manic and frenzied.   Cooper and Malcolm do fantastic work in the middle ground, showing both compassion and tolerance in the face of a technology that is terrifying, wonderful and unquantifiable.

Another strong Flux Theatre Ensemble production which melds science with sentiment and allows the “what if”s to paint a picture of possibility.  Beautiful and meaningful – not to be missed.

~~~

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New York City in the summer can be brutal … hotter than hot and crammed full of people. While a lot of people spend their time doing the “Yay! Summer” chant, I spend June through September finding ways to avoid the whole thing.

These last few weeks have been in the high 80s, the low 90s, I can’t remember exactly — the heat runs it all together for me. So what better way to forget your troubles than in a darkened movie theatre?

While I’ve always been okay with science fiction, fantasy, and graphic novels turned into movies, it was more of a take it or leave it thing before meeting Stephen. Had it not been for him, I’d never have seen a movie like GhostRider or Fantastic 4 or X-Men. Some I’ve liked more than I expected to, some I’ve suffered through, but all have lead to good conversations afterwards since Stephen is such a fan of the dark vs. light concept.

On Friday night after work we were able to catch Hellboy 2 which was a movie I was definitely looking forward to, having been such a fan of the first Hellboy.

I’m not sure I’ve every been more attracted to a guy in makeup and yet less attracted to him out of it, as I’ve been to Ron Perlman who, over the years, has thrilled me with his alter egos. I was glued to the TV for every episode that ever aired of Beauty and the Beast, and if I were a 16 year old girl and torn-out magazine pictures were still acceptable wall covering, I’d have Hellboy plastered all over my room.

Oh wait … now that I think of it, I DID have my 16 year old walls papered with guys in makeup — Boy George, Dustin Hoffman as Tootsie, and pictures I’d drawn of George Hearn in full drag from La Cage Aux Folles.

So I guess I HAVE been more attracted to guys in makeup and less attracted to them out of it before. But that’s another issue altogether …

Anyway, Stephen and I decided to go see Hellboy 2 and this movie did NOT disappoint. It was like the original Hellboy, dialed up to 11 … it was everything Pan’s Labyrinth should have been but wasn’t. (Just sayin’ … all the trailers for Labyrinth would have you believe that the entire movie took place in “Hey, I’ve got eyes in the palms of my hands” land … when really 95% of it took place in “Hey … my new dad’s really brutal and someone’s gonna get his face slashed, Joker Style” land). So Hellboy 2 finally scratched that itch that started all those years ago. The only thing more exciting than the announcement that Guillermo del Toro will be teaming with Peter Jackson for The Hobbit would be an announcement that Guillermo del Toro would be teaming with Tarsem for some outrageous, can’t-even-imagine-how-great-it-would-be film extravaganza. Well, I’ll continue to hope.

On our way out of the theatre we did something that we don’t do very often … ducked into another movie to commit a misdemeanor. I mean, free second movie. Look, it’s not my fault they scheduled Hancock to start 5 minutes after Hellboy got out! So, in we went and settled in for a sweet science fiction double feature.

Maybe I only saw the similarities because I saw them back to back, but besides both being eponymous titles that start with “H” these films were striking most of the same chords — granted one had a few more characters with faces made out of finials and cathedrals and men made of odd shaped rocks or men with eyes in their wings and eyes in their shoes (I would assume), but other than that there was basically a lot of similar plot points. Misunderstood main guy is just trying to do some good but everyone gangs up on him and yells at him (usually right after he’s saved someone). Both grapple with their identity, think of giving it all up, then rally in the face of the woman they love. Both have, like, LITERALLY the fate of the entire world in their own hands at one point … and both have the love of their lives choose to save them over saving the world. Oh! Movie Love at it’s best!

Stephen read a review somewhere that Hancock was a cheap knock-off of an old movie The Return of Captain Invincible. WHICH IT WAS NOT. I happen to know this because Stephen Netflixed Captain Invincible and I suffered through the first 20 minutes of it before shouting “STOP!” and hitting eject. Okay, so Hancock and Captain Invincible are both bummy guys with great powers. I’m sure they both smell a bit. And I’m sure they both have a hard time applying for a bank loan. Past that, the similarity ends. Captain Invincible made (the otherwise talented) Alan Arkin look completely foolish, not just here and there but in every scene. And I, Luvviepuffaroo, the biggest fan of the Broadway Musical Movie in the history of Broadway Musical Movies was absolutely pushed to the point of nausea when Captain Invincible proved to be not only a badly made science fiction move but also a strangely choreographed musical. It was all very weird and creepy. Stephen, who wasn’t as bothered by it as I was (and tends to see things through to the end), watched the whole thing but said it never got any better.

Anyway, both Hellboy 2 and Hancock were very satisfying movies and ultimately made the perfect double feature on a hot summer night.

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