The show in 2022 is only a little changed. David Bengali’s lighting and video work were flawless, but wigs had to go on fast, facing every which way. One element of that version’s artistic success was its fusion of technical precision and stage messiness: As the show’s three actors doubled and tripled up on parts, they allowed cameras to catch glimpses of Breslin scrambling out of his pants and Foley unzipping an elaborately padded troll costume while dripping with sweat. Michael Breslin and Patrick Foley (as well as dramaturgical collaborators Ariel Sibert and Cat Rodríguez) have already gotten onto the 2021 Pulitzer shortlist for the 2020 purely online version, easily one of the best uses of livestreaming during the shutdown. The glossier, harder show by far is Circle Jerk, which has had the time to polish itself to a beetle-wing shine. Both also crank up the joke velocity to make that criticism easier to take - or perhaps to hide their makers’ deep melancholy. Like Molière’s satires, these verbally dexterous plays aim their barbs at intellectualism-flavored vacuity, revealing the self-delusion and shallowness of their own courtiers’ Instagram followers and pals. Both plays emulate Molière’s exquisite social critique by filtering it through pop culture, the former show thickly shellacked with TikTok aesthetics, the latter dressed as an ’80s multi-cam sitcom.
Molière), inspired two super-queer plays in New York this week: Circle Jerk, a hypebeast comedy by the Fake Friends collective, and Weekend at Barry’s/Lesbian Lighthouse, a whippet-fast farce about life in the New York arts economy. Not coincidentally, that era’s elegant goad, Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (a.k.a. In other words, it’s 17th-century France. Of course, it’s so much easier to pretend that reputation is the thing at risk (not our lungs, our minds, our government) it is sourly gratifying to construct a quasi-professional society around that illusion. Here, cancellation is considered a fate worse than death, even though actual death is everywhere, stalking, laughing, coughing in corners. Here we are in the decay of empire (again, still) here we are surrounded by glittering micro-cliques, animated by gossip, fueled by takedowns and sanctimony. From Circle Jerk at the Connelly Theater.
0 kommentar(er)
