The New York Times - USA (2020-08-01)

C2 Y THE NEW YORK TIMES, SATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 2020

WITH ITS FRESHLYcolor-coded cardigans,
my pandemic closet was looking pretty
sharp, I thought — until I saw Joshua
William Gelb’s. Soon after Covid-19 hit New
York, he emptied his, painted it white, re-
inforced it with plywood, removed its door
and turned it into a cross-disciplinary per-
formance lab.

You wouldn’t think that the 4-foot-wide-
by-8-foot-tall space, approximately the
same shape as an iPhone screen, would be
big enough for a play, let alone an avant-
garde company. Yet the closet, only two feet
deep, is one of the stars of Gelb’s Theater in
Quarantine series, which since late March
has produced, on a biweekly schedule, some
of the new medium’s most imaginative
work from some of its simplest materials.
As in silent movies, clowning, movement
and mime are usually part of the mix.
“The 7th Voyage of Egon Tichy,” which
was livestreamed on Thursday evening and
will remain available in perpetuity on Gelb’s
YouTube channel, has all of those and then
some. Based on a 1957 story by Stanislaw
Lem, the Polish science fiction writer most
famous for “Solaris,” it concerns an astro-
naut named Egon who, passing through a
minefield of gravitational vortexes, is
caught in a causal loop paradox that bom-
bards him with innumerable (and insuffer-
able) alternative selves.
Lem’s story is a satire of the infinite hu-
man capacity for self-defeat, with the vari-
ous Egon incarnations bickering and under-
mining one another as the gyrations of
space-time bend them into conflict. When “a
meteor no bigger than a pea” pierces the
ship’s hull, destroying the rudder, everyone
has ideas about fixing it — but since it’s a
two-man job, making cooperation essential,
nothing actually gets done. Philosophical
cleverness is the story’s top note; beneath it
you may scent the sad bouquet of solitude,
even among a crowd.
That makes the tale wonderfully apt for
our social-distancing moment, if not an ob-
vious match for a small camera and a tiny
stage. Adapting Lem’s story, the playwright
Josh Luxenberg has thus replaced the sat-
ire with slapstick: The virtuosic Gelb, play-
ing all the Egons, is often to be found wrig-
gling through his ship’s trapdoors or bop-
ping himself on the head with a skillet. In-
stead of Intergalactic Groundhog Day the
result is more like the Three Stooges in
Space, except there are as many as 26
stooges involved and they’re all as bossy
and testy as Moe.
If the closet, representing all the cham-
bers of the spaceship, is one of the show’s
stars, the other is Gelb himself; no other hu-
mans appear in “The 7th Voyage” — nor
have any appeared live so far in the Theater

in Quarantine series. That’s in part because

Gelb, who has asthma, is loath to leave his

East Village railroad flat or otherwise take

risks with the coronavirus. But, chicken-

and-eggwise, that sense of isolation is also

the product (or result) of a bracing aes-

thetic that can arise from deprivation.

Not that the production is technologically

impoverished. Using standard phones,

cameras and computers running software

repurposed for digital production, the direc-

tor Jonathan Levin has devised a sophis-

ticated mise en scène. To “stage” the multi-

ple-Egon scenes, he layers recorded takes

of Gelb with live ones in which he interacts

with himself. By turning the camera 90 de-

grees, he creates scenes that simulate

weightlessness and horizontality, much as

the director Stanley Donen made it appear,

in “Royal Wedding,” that Fred Astaire was

dancing on the ceiling. In this case, though,

lacking a rotating set on an MGM sound-

stage, Gelb has to adjust his posture to cre-

ate the illusion of floating at the top of the

closet while actually supine on its floor.

Considering the shoestring budget —

Theater in Quarantine, working with Sink-

ing Ship Productions, put the show together

for $6,000, most of it going to pay the artists

— “The 7th Voyage” looks and sounds ter-

rific. The set and costume design by Peiyi

Wong are homemade marvels reminiscent

of both Cornell boxes and coffins; the stat-

icky video design by Jesse Garrison and the

spacey music by M. Florian Staab smartly

update the ominous vibe of 1950s sci-fi.

But as is often the case with new modes of

presentation, hyperattention to surfaces

comes at some expense to depth. Even at

only 35 minutes, “The 7th Voyage” is emo-

tionally slim, with a busy skin and not much

psychology. Likewise Lem’s story, which

implies truths without filling them in, can

read like a mathematical proof. Both are ele-

gant and nimble and dry.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, espe-

cially as established theaters wait out the

pandemic, lumbering and slumbering to-

ward Bethlehem. It’s more of a nascent

thing. Theater in Quarantine only recently

added words to its repertoire; in May it

presented “an unauthorized edit” of Beck-

ett’s “Krapp’s Last Tape.” (An adaptation of

“The Secret Miracle” by Borges is sched-

uled for Aug. 27.) But as the company ad-

vances further into spoken theater, I hope it

finds ways to flesh out its smart playfulness

with — how can I put this? — more human

gravity.

JESSE GREEN THEATER REVIEW

A Closet Stage, Filled With Slapstick

An experimental theater lab

adapts a sci-fi tale about the

solitude of cramped quarters.

The 7th Voyage of Egon Tichy

On YouTube

Images from the Youtube

performance of “The 7th

Voyage of Egon Tichy,”

performed by Joshua

William Gelb in his East

Village closet.

OUTSIDE OF THE UNITED STATES,theaters

have started grinding back into gear. For

American viewers, this essentially means

two things: The flow of archived European

shows made available is slowing to a

trickle; and live performances are popping

up again, in controlled environments, and

we can watch some of them. The Auckland

Theater Company in New Zealand, for ex-

ample, was recently able to record its stag-

ing of Ibsen’s “The Master Builder” in front

of small audiences; the production will be

available on the company’s YouTube chan-

nel, Aug. 8 to 30.

America is in isolation for the longer haul.

Here, most theater continues to happen on-

line with a mix of taped older works and

new projects that tend to be relatively mod-

est in size but are getting conceptually more

daring. (The Obie-winning Ice Factory fes-

tival of new, unexpected works is entirely

online this year, through Aug. 15.)

Read on for a selection of events you can

sample over the next couple of weeks.

Strutting Their Stuff for a Cause

For New Yorkers, the annual “Broadway

Bares” fund-raiser for Broadway Cares/Eq-

uity Fights AIDS is an opportunity to do

good while enjoying scantily clad perform-

ers strutting their stuff. The icing on the

cake — which comes in both the cheese and

beef varieties — is the Broadway stars who

come to partake in something new, some-

thing blue (but remain clothed). This year’s

edition, “Zoom In,” takes place online Aug. 1

at 9:30 p.m. Eastern time.

Voices to Be Heard

The ambitious “#WhileWeBreathe: A

Night of Creative Protest” is made up of 11

new works by and starring an exciting

group of writers, directors and actors. The

project, which can be watched on YouTube,

benefits the NAACP Legal Defense and Ed-

ucational Fund and other like-minded orga-

nizations. While the pieces are short (the

whole program runs just over an hour),

most are very effective. A perfect example

is Cheryl L. Davis’s “Now I Lay Me Down to

Sleep,” starring Patina Miller and Hailey

Stone under Tamara Tunie’s direction — the

minimalist staging only makes it more qui-

etly distressing.

Killer Shows

A good murder-mystery party is wicked fun

but, alas, real-life parties are impossible

these days. Enter Andrew Barth Feldman, a

former Evan Hansen and continuing mur-

der-mystery fan, with “Broadway Who-

dunit?,” a new interactive online series in

which viewers try to finger a killer while

hobnobbing in virtual rooms with pro per-

formers. The cast for the first edition, “Mur-

der at Montgomery Manor” (Aug. 1 at 8

p.m.), includes Gaten Matarazzo (“Strang-

er Things”), Shereen Pimentel (“West Side

Story”) and Will Roland (“Be More Chill”).

Tickets cost $21.30.

Those who prefer singing along to goofy

investigations might investigate the digital

show “A Killer Party: A Murder Mystery

Musical,” which premieres Aug. 5. The cast

for the nine short installments (cost: $9.99

for all nine) includes Jeremy Jordan, Laura

Osnes, Carolee Carmello, Alex Newell and

Miguel Cervantes (who had taken on the ti-

tle role in “Hamilton” a few days before

Broadway shut down).

‘Munywood Squares’

Sadly, the St. Louis Municipal Opera The-

ater, known as the Muny, won’t be packing

its 11,000-seat house this year. Instead, it is

going online with weekly installments of

“The Muny 2020 Summer Variety Hour

Live!” The new episode, which streams

Aug. 3 and 6, includes recorded scenes from

the Muny’s productions of “Les Misérables”

and “Newsies,” along with live perform-

ances by audience favorites like Beth

Leavel and something called “Munywood

Squares” with Ann Harada, Vicki Lewis and

Christopher Sieber, among others. The

streams, which include audio description

and captioning, are every Monday and

Thursday at 9:15 p.m.

Small Is Beautiful

In April, New York’s PlayCo began “Mini-

Commissions” of new works, which are now

coming to fruition. “Inside Voice,” for in-

stance, is an animated music video for a

lovely song by Lauren Worsham (“A Gen-

tleman’s Guide to Love and Murder”) and

her husband, Kyle Jarrow (author of the

book for “SpongeBob SquarePants — The

Broadway Musical”). Also alluring is the

first episode of a musical podcast by Katie

Brook and Trish Harnetiaux about a cruise

ship on which the entertainment includes a

play by Eugene Ionesco.

Note that most of the Mini-Commissions

are accessible on demand but William

Burke’s will be done as live Zoom perform-

ances Aug. 10-12 at 7:30 p.m.

Hello God, It’s Me, Stuck at Home

The Almighty and puppets: That could be

the elevator pitch for “The God Projekt.”

Originally staged at La MaMa in 2016, Kev-

in Augustine and Edward Einhorn’s absurd-

ist show is now available on Vimeo through

Aug. 16, thanks to Untitled Theater Com-

pany #61. (Note that the company also of-

fers its intimate “Performance for One” on

demand for $25.)

Dear Neurotic Prince...

For his 2001 epistolary play, “The Secret

Love Life of Ophelia,” Steven Berkoff, the

British actor, playwright and director, filled

in the blanks behind one of the stage’s most

underexplored relationships — hint: it in-

volves a Danish prince. A new project of the

Greenwich Theater in England reimagines

Berkoff’s two-hander with 40 actors, includ-

ing Helen Mirren as Hamlet’s mother,

Gertrude. The show streams free July 31-

Aug. 14 on the company’s YouTube channel.

Breaking Boundaries Online

Like everything else, the Long Wharf The-

ater in New Haven, Conn., had to change

tack — in method of delivery, not artistic

goals. One initiative under the new artistic

director Jacob G. Padrón’s leadership is the

omnibus livestream “Black Trans Women

at the Center” on Aug. 5 at 8 p.m. The free

event will feature readings of three short

plays: Dezi Bing’s “Things Unknown,”

CeCe Suazo’s “You Will Nevaaa... ” and

Douglas Lyons’s “Sunshine.” (Register on

the Long Wharf site.)

STREAMING THEATER

The actor Andrew Grainger,
center, during a filming of the
Auckland Theater Company’s
“The Master Builder,” which
will be shown online.

ANDREW MALMO/AUCKLAND THEATER COMPANY

Some Choice Offerings

For Online Audiences

Mysteries, comedies, protests

and God: What more could

you ask of writers and actors?

By ELISABETH VINCENTELLI