 |
 |
At The Connection, satyrs wear furry chaps and boxing helmets with ram horns. They bounce and cavort erotically like beasts in heat.
A trio of mustachioed pizza chefs deliver an assortment of dildos. A French stripper in a disheveled Marie Antoinette wig and a tawdry costume with small fish swimming in her panniers provides comical, exhibitionistic amusement. A drunken bride-to-be twirls in a dress made of Twizzlers candy and invites onlookers to autograph her bared bottom.
"Batch: An American Bachelor/ette Party Spectacle," the sixth full-length work in this year's Humana Festival of New American Plays, isn't so much a play as it is a sensory experience.
Staged at Louisville's best-known gay nightclub, this experimental look at the modern ritual of over-the-top prenuptial bashes feels like being inside someone else's hallucinogenic dream as it delves with unmitigated gusto into the profane side of the marriage industry.
Accompanying the sweaty and astonishingly acrobatic performances of the six actors (three men and three women) are virtual images of themselves. Taped video segments that underscore and coordinate with live shots of the action on stage are projected on four large screens on each side of a square stage about 4-feet high.
For the audience, it's a multi-dimensional event. You can watch the screens, the actors or the audience's reactions to either.
From the stage, which is designed to evoke a boxing metaphor, the actors emerge and disappear in surprising ways through a small opening in a corner. They rise out of it as if on hydraulic lifts and fearlessly drop out of sight. They throw out props and hurl each other up and out onto the stage. At one point, actor Jeb Kreager leapt into the air, touched his toes and disappeared into the box without making a sound.
"Batch" was created by Los Angeles playwright Alice Tuan with Whit MacLaughlin of Philadelphia and the New Paradise Laboratories theater group there for the Humana Festival. This is the second work by NPL related to American rituals. They previously produced "Prom."
In addition to Kreager, the NPL actors are McKenna Kerrigan (the bride); Aaron Mumaw (the groom); Lee Ann Etzold; Matt Saunders, who also designed the set; and Mary McCool. All six actors play women at a bachelorette party as well as men at a bachelor party.
The stellar, mind-bending work of the behind-the-scenes crew must be noted, particularly Brian J. Lilienthal's lighting, the outrageously clever costumes by Rosemarie McKelvey and Actors' costume shop and the videos created by Jorge Cousineau.
The missing element of the "Batch" dreamscape is a sense of the relationship between the bride and groom. While it's true that pre-wedding parties are aimed at creating an unforgettable night for the still-single honoree and friends, "Batch" deprives the audience of a connection to the couple. Who are they? Why are they getting married? Do they even love each other? The play provides unsatisfying snippets of information in that regard.
Like observers at a nightclub who witness a bachelor party, we see only the debauchery and none of the romance. In the end, we're just there for the party. But it's wild.
Critic Judith Egerton can be reached at (502) 582-4503.