"Death and Giggles" & "Sole Mate"
Minimalist performance art can run the risk of coming across too coldly abstract to feel anything except curious admiration, but The Actor’s Gang duel performances show that less can still have a lot of heart and, in this case, plenty of sole.
If you love Jimmy Choo, then the opening show is for you.
“Sole Mate” is a cute, somewhat sappily sweet little number about a shoe searching for his better half. Standing atop a chair, Cristina Bercovitz sings and manipulates the open flap of a single shoe as Mr. Shoe recounts his luckless dating adventures. Yes, apparently finding love in LA is just as hard on the shoes. Mr. Shoe goes from one mismatched pair to another, as Jessica Erskine provides The Legs and the who’s who footwear of swinging, single soles from behind a colorful wardrobe.
Of course, the ending is painfully obvious in the you’ve-been-right-there-all-along sort of way, but Bercovitz does a wonderful job seemingly disappearing before our eyes as she puppeteers Mr. Shoe’s rubber soled lips. It’s precious, it’s precocious, but lacks a “Sole in the City” urbane wit.
But this is just as well, as it followed by the deeply inscrutable but highly theatrical physical talents of Daisuke Tsuji as Giggles, a clownish lost soul fascinated with balloons, deep-sea diving and death masquerading as suicide. Little is said, except for the occasional and unnecessary voiceovers of Giggles’ uncharacteristically calm inner self, but far more is conveyed through Tsuji’s impish facial expressions, gracefully adroit movements and his childlike peels and squeals of delight. Give Tsuji a black jumpsuit and a pair of scissors, and his wonderment comes across as strangely captivating as Johnny Depp in Edward Scissorhands.
With so much not being directly said, it is difficult to fully grasp or appreciate the intangible symbols and themes: popping balloons, the small, black grenade-like balloon Giggles keeps stowed inside a box, and the bound but determined sock puppet, aptly named “Socks.” All this eye-candy makes for broad thematic strokes with very little nuance or relevant cohesion. There is great humor, imaginative visual spectacles, and touching moments when the show doesn’t edge too closely to the precipice of somber depression. Death always has a way of wriggling into the conceptual high-art trap and its formula is a too easy, predictable temptation.
Nevertheless, Tsuji keeps it light whenever he pushes the limits and patience of his audience by challenging them to push back. Engaging the audience in an imaginary food fight and courting an unsuspecting woman brought on stage as they wed are just some of the highlights of Tsuji’s affable charms. The relationship he creates is both antagonistic and beguiling. The most uncomfortable sound for an audience is overwhelming long silences. In a hilarious test of his mother’s will and the audience, Tsuji performs an endless, but rewarding standoff sitting on a chair. He continues to sit, almost still, in cricket-chirping silence. Soon the nervous titters start, and then more, until the audience laughs from both the sheer discomfort of the quiet and the situation. Beyond the subliminal pretext, there is astute psychological play in Tsuji’s extraordinary showmanship that creates both empathy and suspense.
The abstract is further materialized by Shannon Kennedy’s bizarrely shaped molded mountain of wrinkled fabric subtly slit to provide faces to Giggles nightmarish fantasies. Jonathan Snipes delivers a full range with his musical score for both pieces.
Introspective, bold, and daringly original, “Death and Giggles” is like looking at Jackson Pollock’s squiggly high-concept art; you can appreciate it but don’t bother analyzing it to death. Sometimes a balloon is just a balloon, until it pops.
“Death and Giggles” and “Sole Mate”
Runs through October 23
“Late Start Fridays” at 9pm
Oct 9, 16, 23
Saturdays at 8pm on Oct 10
The Actor’s Gang
9070 Venice Blvd
Culver City, CA 90232
(Corner of Culver and Venice Blvds)
PH: 310-838-4264 (GANG)
www.theactorsgang.com