Joseph Lark-Riley resurrects a 100-12 months-outdated unproduced engage in by the infamously obtuse early 20th-century poet Gertrude Stein as hyperpop puppet theater in Not Sightly, just one of the extra brain-bending pieces of effectiveness artwork I have seen in a lot of a Fringe Pageant. Not Sightly went unstaged for a century for a very good explanation, considering that most theatergoers desire plays that at the very least make a little lick of perception. But Lark-Riley does not let that halt him, as he offers the prose as a Greek tragedy performed by cardboard cutouts of iconographic statuary inside of a towering pile of minimally animated framed dioramas, all established to upbeat electronica.
It’s a superior issue Lark-Riley grants his viewers pre-emptive absolution from feeling like they are lacking anything, for the reason that even with the rationalization in the system I was totally at sea. Sitting by Stein’s inscrutable tongue-twisting term salad is like listening to a sound 30 minutes of Lucky’s nonsense monologue from Ready for Godot whilst viewing working day-glo paint dry. Besides right here you simply cannot even decipher the dialogue (much much less try to decode its meaning), as his words and phrases are nearly totally confused by overuse of echoey audio effects and droning digital comments continual sounds from the bar future door doesn’t assist issues any. Possibly this experiment may possibly be much more productive as an artwork gallery set up, where by viewers could escape for a respite and then return.
Stein at the time claimed of her individual do the job, “If you appreciate it, you fully grasp it.” I’m typically the initially to applaud any avant-garde work, but did I appreciate or comprehend this present? Not a bit.
Tickets and display details: Gertrude Stein’s Not Sightly, a Participate in