I Don’t Believe in Outer..what?
On Wednesday October 6th I traveled down to the Brooklyn Academy of Music to see a play entitled “I Don’t Believe In Outer Space”. Before attending the production, I had managed to see a brief snippet of the production done previously. This snippet involved a man pretending to play table tennis with an invisible ball. He even managed to add in his own sound effects to truly create a strange display. So, in a sense, I was somewhat prepared for what I was about to witness. However, my preparation had not trained me well enough for this display of bizarre behavior.
The entire stage was covered with small balls of duct tape, and began with several groups of people randomly prancing throughout the stage. I couldn’t figure out who to fix my attention on, and this caused me to whip my head left and right, trying to understand what was going on before me. The dancing, if you could call it that, was a mix of a what a contortionist would do and the prancing of a traditional ballet. Sprinkled over the play were occasional monologues, most notable one by a woman who may have been possessed by Satan himself. It was almost as if I was in a really bad nightmare, because nothing was making sense and everything was horrifying me. But alas, I knew I wasn’t in a nightmare, because even in my worst dreams, I could at least see what was going on without twisting my body in a yoga-esque pose. Yes, the seats were that horrendous. Adding to my dismay were 2 human giraffes sitting in the two seats ahead of me. It seemed as if the BAM had taken surveillance on me, figured out what would baffle me the most, and put in on stage. However, one element of this….thing was able to salvage my sanity, and that was Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive”. This song, like every other element in the play, had no real reason to be there, but it was almost like this song was the blanket that protected me from the fierce, horrific tundra of “I Don’t Believe in Outer Space”.
Overall, the play wasn’t to my liking. However, I had learned some valuable life lessons and skills after attending the performance. The most important skill I gained was being able to find my happy place. I was scared, and I was petrified. However, I went deep into my brain and entered my new-found happy place, and now when something traumatic is occurring, I can return to my happy place for safety and refuge. I will survive. I won’t lay down and die, but with that being said, if bizarre and random displays of expression for 75 minutes aren’t your idea of a good time, you might as well do so. I salute William Forscythe and all of the performers for their effort, and if it’s any consolation, this isn’t the most disturbing thing I have ever seen (I think it ranks close to 11 on the top 20).
Tags: Bhutta
This entry was posted on Sunday, December 18th, 2011 at 3:09 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
