Hold Me Closer, Tiny Theater

If anyone is free tonight or tomorrow and have a hankering for some fun, experimental theatre, you may want to head over to the Ontological-Hysteric Incubator for the Tiny Theater Festival as I did last night. (It's also playing at the Brick until May 12).

The Tiny Theater Festival features six short experimental-in-narrative plays. One of the standouts includes "bullet hole road," an excerpt of a longer piece by Temporary distortion called Welcome to Nowhere (bullet hole road) about a road trip/series of road trips (of sorts).

This is from the company's Web site:

"Welcome to Nowhere (bullet hole road) is Temporary distortion's investigation of the American Road Movie. At the core, most road movies fall into one of two distinct categories: the Quest road movie or the Outlaw road movie. In Welcome to Nowhere we weave together these two narrative trajectories to form a crossroads - a dynamic narrative landscape where the road stories of multiple characters continually shift on an uncertain terrain."

I'm very curious to see the whole piece, since the 10-minute excerpt was fascinating. To me, this is a very good example of experimental theatre done right: there's no linear story to follow per se, but at no point while watching it was I lost, bored or confused. It's an incredibly hypnotic and engaging experience.

Another piece that makes the evening worth checking out is "Theme & Variations" by Steven Gridley and Spring Theatreworks (whose Post Oedipus made my "Top Ten" list for 2004), a truly funny and bizarre piece about family mealtime, The Honeymooners and how one can never have too much salt on a nicely-cooked fish.

Steve Gridley (who co-directed this piece along with recurring collaborator Jacob Titus) has a knack for creating plays that resonate in the brain and imagination long after the curtain call. There's stuff in "Theme & Variations" that is still making me giggle as I write this.

It also features Mr. Gridley who, based on this performance, should consider acting more often.

And there's also "Li'L Care Bear 'Crash'" by Cherry Red Productions, a reenactment of the Oscar-winning movie, Crash, done with Care Bears. I'm not kidding.

So, before we get inundated with the big festivals of the summer, you may want to check out the plays going on at the Tiny Theater Festival.

The Ontological-Hysteric is at St. Mark's Church on 131 East 10th street and 2nd Ave. You've got two more chances to check out these plays. Tickets are available here.

Hysterical,

James "Ontological" Comtois