MOVING RIGHT ALONG // A THEATRE DIVE INTO "BODY CONCERT (WORK-IN-PROGRESS)"

BY MATEO MORENO

If you're visited the downtown theatre scene in NYC, then you definitely know LaMama. If you aren't familiar with it, or aren't a local, LaMama is an experimental Off-Off Broadway theatre (also known as Indie Theatre) founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart. It's had various locations throughout downtown Manhattan until finally settling in on East 4th street in 1974, where it sits down. LaMama is known for producing challenging and thought provoking plays, not only in NYC but also through their touring productions around the world. A few years ago, I was able to see THE GOD PROJEKT, the first play of their 2016 season. That play featured Kevin Augustine (who co-wrote and co-directed with Edward Einhorn) playing a decades old God reflecting on unanswered prayers and his own legacy. He mixed monologues with movement and puppetry and it was sublime. His latest project, BODY CONCERT, should be billed as a "work-in-progress" but continues his work with movement and puppetry. It's one of five different productions by five different artists premiering in the "LaMama Moves! Dance Festival," playing digitally due to the ongoing pandemic.

What Augustine shares here is less of a finished, polished show and more of a peek inside his mind. A behind the scenes sneak peak at the show he's created that, due to the pandemic, has not yet been staged. It's a movement piece inspired by Butoh, a form of Japanese dance theatre, that has Augustine moving his puppets with his hands, his feet and stretches out his legs to create the imagery. The puppets (by Lone Wolf Tribe) look like they've walked out of the BODIES: THE EXHIBITION. Broken limbs, fractured legs, the move both separately and together, forming a haunting bit of strangeness. Set to a score by Mark Bruckner, we get to see BODY CONCERT in the creation mode (one that has been forming since 2014). We see the sculpting of the puppets, early sketches, rehearsing the music and bits of the choreography. Augustine is clad all in black, including an all-black mask with no spot for his eyes. He disappears completely, letting you watch the body parts come to life and sing a sort of song themselves.

Some moments seem to be "trial and error" moments, such as a test run of movement with a giant eye that is deemed "too squishy" by the end. A leg, floating in the air, dances with its arm. A small body crawls across the floor to reach its intended subject: a fractured skull. The puppets themselves are ingeniously designed and meticulously crafted with a score that truly helps bring it all to life. It's an experience that you should see to truly understand, and you still can. Tickets for the final performance, January 27th, can be found at the link below. Check it out and follow Kevin and Lone Wolf Tribe's future happenings. Augustine is truly an artist who makes magic happen on stage, even when its on the screen.

CREATED AND PERFORMED BY Kevin Augustine. CO-PRODUCED BY Lone Wolf Tribe and Les Sages Fous For ticket information: http://lamama.org/moves/

OUR FATHER, WHO'S MAD IN HEAVEN // A THEATRE REVIEW OF "THE GOD PROJEKT"

BY MATEO MORENO

This past weekend I ventured into the lower east side to see THE GOD PROJEKT, the opening selection to LaMama's 2016 season. This is actually the second time the production has appeared her in NY, the last being in 2013 at the same theatre (though the smaller space before). I've sat with it purposefully for a couple days, realizing that my review does need to indeed come out before the run of the show ends (this coming Sunday). But I needed to sit with it, to unpack it. And there's a lot to unpack. The story, co-created and written by Einhorn and Kevin Augustine, finds a decades old God (played sublimely by Augustine) sitting alone in heaven, or rather in a broken down, cluttered up office space. Hidden behind a beautifully crafted old age mask, he spends his time alone for the most part, his company only being a stuffed monkey (played by Monkey) and his assistant (played by Einhorn who speaks into an off stage mic and patches through messages and voicemails of unanswered prayers). It's a broken, shattered version of God, one that is in love with his own legacy and has a hard time coordinating what prayer to reach out to next. He's annoyed one minute with lame prayer requests and then in pieces at his own jokes (the best of which is revealed at the beginning of Act II where he hosts a "Catskills-like" comedy show).

He tends to get lost in thought, thinking of his once wife and how he wasn't always alone. He longs to create something again, something new. And so he does: he creates a new "Adam" in the form of a half-finished Puppet of a Man. But he doesn't finish it and chucks it into the basement with the rest of his half-finished creations. The Adam puppetry (all designed by Augustine) is fascinating and so is the sad story that follows him. He's now broken, unable to speak, unable to understand why he's only half finished. Unable to know why his master has forsaken him. It's heartbreaking and powerful. As for God, he constantly films himself, gazing into the camera as if it's his oldest friend. He cradles a giant arm of a woman that's been frozen in a freezer, caressing her gently and realizing he isn't quite what he used to be.

The God Projekt moves at a very slow, deliberate pace and watching it takes more than a little patience. But it rewards those who have it with a starteling story and visual splender. Augustine's performance as God is captivating and powerful. His physicality and storytelling is incredible and the power duo of Einhorn and Ausustine direct the tale and frames the work with the careful grace of two master storytellers. This isn't a play to see and forget about. This is a play to sit with, to put on a shelf and to pick it back up the next day, revisiting the bitter and brutal points of the show. Unable to find the exact way to put God into words? Well, God seems to have that issue too and he's literally talking about himself. For a thoughtful, exillerating meditation on faith, theology, and the art of being able to move on from the past, head to LaMama between now and Sunday. You may not know exactly what you're seeing at the time, but I promise you it'll stay with you long after you journey home.

GRADE: A

Conceived by Kevin Augustine Co-written and Co-directed by Kevin Augustine and Edward Einhorn Starring Kevin Augustine, Edward Einhorn, Emily Marsh, and Joseph Garner. Playing now through Sunday Oct 16th at: LaMama Experimental Theatre - Ellen Stewart Theatre (66 E. 4th Street). For tickets: http://untitledtheater.com/

MATEO MORENO is an actor and a playwright. His plays Happily After Tonight, Within Our Walls, Bohemian Valentine and Paper Airplanes have all been produced in NY and beyond. He is currently workshopping his new play Fairground Attraction as part of Athena Theatre's 2016 Playwrighting Group "Athena Writes." He lives in Brooklyn, New York.