NICK & JEREMY, more devised theatre at Cleveland Public Theatre
What happens when two
friends, Nick Riley, a drummer and performer, and Jeremy Paul, a director and
actor, meet over a number of months to talk “stuff?” Of course, they create a devised theatre piece, combining
interactions, vinyl, drumming and audience interplay, and name the proceedings
NICK & JEREMY. Then, they make
arrangements to have it staged at Cleveland Public Theatre, the home of
theatrical invention and innovation.
This is not your
traditional theatrical production.
This world premiere staging is in the Storefront Studio theatre, a black
box space, with a thrust stage, that used to house a bookstore.
When you enter, you are
greeted by the actors who engage you in conversations based on questions they
ask you and you ask them.
Finally, when they are in
the right mood, the duo sits down at a small table, have some coffee, and
proceed to talk, occasionally getting up and putting various records on an old
fashioned turntable, play the drums, go to a podium, do some shtick, and return
to the table for some more talk.
The subjects they discuss
range from whether one should wear a hat in the theatre, to whether the red dot
on the floor under the table is supposed to be Mars, to foundational
psychology, the operation of the brain, the sense of self, enlightenism, the
consciousness of reality, drugs, dreams, magic, demons, the disappearance of
the universe with only this room and the people in it remaining, whether the
“I” is really the “Me,” writing a letter to oneself as a youth at age 80,
suspended disbelief, situational intentionalism, commitment, and whether, in
fact, everything that the audience is hearing is really only taking place in
their individual heads. The
vignettes finally come to a halt when the audience is taken on a personal
guided imagery. Well, at least
that is where it should have ended.
The tacked on after-the fact ending added little.
Sound obtuse, too
intellectual? That depends on the
listener. If you hang around
coffee shops and play mind games, or you participated in all nighters in
college based on what was discussed, or should have been discussed, in
philosophy class, or you are addicted to probing for the beyond, you’ll feel
right at home. You’ll really want
to walk onto the stage, which is no more than five feet away from anyone in the
theatre, and take part.
In fact, lots of people
swarmed around the actors after the performance to continue the dialogue. Others walked out, got in their cars,
and pondered the meaning of life as they drove home with their heads full of
random thoughts, asking, “What in Hades did I just see and hear?”
Capsule judgement: NICK AND JEREMY is
an electric kool-aid acid trip, minus the drugs, which would make Timothy
Leary, the proponent of the use of psychedelic substances and believer in” tune
on, tune in, drop out,” very happy. It should be of great interest to deep or pseudo-deep
thinkers.
NICK & JEREMY runs
from March 29-April 13, 2013 at Cleveland Public Theatre. For tickets call 216-631-2727 or go on
line to www.cptonline.org.
