At On The Boards Saturday and Sunday.
What a waste. Jan Fabre’s splendid company saves him from the didactic tedium of his text, but just barely.
I think he was going for something like this, Jean Lowe’s Overstock! from 2009,
(Enamel on panel, 95 ½ x 84″)
The fatal virus of consumerist capitalism kills its host.
Instead, frantic overkill subverts his indictment of high fashion, Christianity, the id of appetite, the KKK, Abu Ghraib, racism and the wealthy. Fabre is a leftist blowhard who charms radiant performers into working for him.
There are moments, however, when the text scores. Men with guns lounge on leather sofas and summon women with a snap of the fingers, who rush over to masturbate them.
“My museum is getting too small for all my Hindu Indians,” says one man. “I need only two more Jews to complete my collection,” says another.
Faber also succeeds in taking the erotic out of the sexual and the fun out of a joke. Orgy of Tolerance opens with four writhing under the pressure of their own hands, coached by four in paramilitary garb. The first 10 seconds were pretty funny, but Farbre skillfully turned the humor inside out to mock those in the audience foolish enough to laugh.
I love this company. They can do anything. Too bad they’re doing this for one hour and 45 minutes. Anytime there was music (Dag Taelderman) and dance, the bad time I was having became a distant memory. The ballet with shopping carts was wonderful, and performer Goran Navojec sold every scene in which he appeared. He’s the only hefty body on the lithe team, and the only one whose sex appeal could not be disguised. Even when he wandered in wearing nothing but diapers and smoking a cigar only to disappear again, he was the star.
I heard a woman behind me whisper to her companion, “Bring back the big guy.” Amen.
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