Laughing into the Void.

So on a cloudy Friday evening in April, I met Gabby down in Soho for an evening of avant-garde theater, a play called "All Wear Bowlers"

Ok, let's get right into it...here's the description from the Here Arts Center website, where "All Wear Bowlers" is currently playing:

"Two silent film clowns take a wrong turn and find themselves trapped in a haunted theatre, where hard-boiled eggs play tricks on them and gravity refuses to behave. The bleak poetic landscape of Beckett, the elegant absurdity of Magritte and the dysfunctional virtuosity of Laurel & Hardy collide to create a world of venomous ventriloquists and belligerent bowlers."

Now initially the idea of an absurdist comedy that takes Waiting For Godot as a major reference point sounded problematic to me. I mean, what if the existentialism is just half-baked and poorly done? And the comedy? Well, what if it's just not funny? But after reading a number of positive reviews and talking with a couple of people who actually know the pefromers in the play, I figured I'd give it a shot.

And?...it's really, really good! If you're absolultely opposed to anything even marginally slapstick, it's not for you, but the actors are incredibly good at what they do. It's completely accessible, and not in a pandering avant-garde-lite sort of way either. There were a couple of kids in the audience who enjoyed it as much any of the adults (though I assume their parents have a pretty lenient cussing policy as far as entertainment is concerned, as the language goes occasionally potty-mouthed). There's some amazing film projection work that starts and ends the show, and despite getting "lost" in the existential void of it all, everything comes together in the end in a way that I found really rewarding.

I could probably go on for a while, so I'll just cut this short by saying, it's playing until May 28th at the Here Arts Center, and you can click on that link for more information.