“This is the most retarded piece of rubbish I have ever been a part of.”
Photo Credit: Michael Lamont
Brimmer Street Theatre Company, a local troupe consisting of Emerson graduates, has focused its attention on a little known meeting between Pablo Picasso and leading French existentialists in Vichy France. They gathered in secret, past curfew, to stage a reading of a new play Picasso had written, DESIRE CAUGHT BY THE TAIL.
In an attempt to pump some life in to Picasso’s dreadful play- and it is truly horrible- writer and director David Jette has composed a classic farce around the events of this evening. Resistance fighters, Sartre, Picasso, Leiris, Camus, de Beauvoir, the ladies in their lives, and even an SS officer slam doors, swap partners, berate each other physically and emotionally; all under the watchful gaze of a six foot tall bronze swastika, our reminder of the ever present occupational forces of the Third Reich. LEIRIS/PICASSO: WEDNESDAY NIGHT AT THE HOME OF MICHEL LEIRIS A READING OF THE PLAY ‘DESIRE CAUGHT BY THE TAIL’ BY THE PAINTER PABLO PICASSO wants desperately to escape the black hole of the source material, as well the gravity of it’s own title, but is never able to take off. And like passengers on a commercial airliner stalled on the tarmac for hours, the audience is left completely in the dark, asking one question over and over; “Why?” Why are the costumes in no way accurate for the period? Why is there no fire in the belly of the show? Why are the actors having such a good time while the audience suffers? Why do Picasso and the SS officer have accents, but the Frenchies do not? Why am I thinking about any of this while I should be engrossed in this show? Brimmer Street’s stated mission is, “…to develop original theatre artists whose work challenges established forms and expectations…” Yet LEIRIS/PICASSO challenges no established forms, and the only expectations it challenges are those of it’s audience to experience a fresh evening of entertainment. Merely throwing artists, trust fund babes, resistance fighters, and a Nazi into the ‘farce machine’ does not cut it. The audience slogging through LEIRIS/PICASSO is bored into submission. Yet there was so much action to put on stage, which all occurred off of it: resistance fighters stealing a larger than life swastika from the Eiffel Tower, Picasso’s mistress de-robing, arousing, and teasing her scene partner, “hidden” homosexual lust, the gourmet preparations of a pigeon in the kitchen. At some point in its development, someone should have pulled the plug. It is very possible that LEIRIS/PICASSO reads very well. Like Cirque’s insistent fall on its own BANANA SHPEEL, were the decision makers too emotionally invested in the success of the show, blinding them to its mediocrity? Each performer on stage tore in to their roles, showing the marks of a fine tuned ensemble comfortable with each other after years of work. Lets hope that Brimmer Street harnesses its talents in the cause of a more vibrant experience moving forward. They are most certainly capable of it.Thematic content includes: Love, Adultery, Sex, Violence, Self Destruction, Highbrow, Lowbrow, Humor.
LIERS/PICASSO
6/12 to 7/24 $24
Th,F,Sa 8pm
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