I can't make this post too long because I have to clean my apartment and go over materials for Luckiest Kid (which starts up again tomorrow) and exercise before going to The Adrienne and seeing Ego Po's A Doll's House (I know I haven't seen it yet and I should be ashamed. Being an artistic advisory board member and everything but...you know...I've been busy).
In any case, yesterday I saw The Nature Theatre of Oklahoma's Life & Times parts 1-5. That equals 12 hours of theatre. I've never experienced anything like this. For several reasons...
First off, the show was freaking 12 hours long. With intermissions so they could transition (they fed us multiple times...including a delicious BBQ! With organic ketchup!). That's the longest I've ever sat in a theatre and been emotionally invested in something. Ever. The longest shows I've seen before was Elevator Repair Service's The Sun Also Rises, and Operetta by the Capitol Theatre (Wroclaw) in Poland, both of which were 3.5 hours long.
That's how long the first episode of Life and Times is. 3.5 hours.
Secondly, the entire concept behind the piece is unlike anything I've ever seen. Over the course of 10 phone conversations, artistic director Pavol Liska asked their sound designer Kristen Worrell to tell the story of her life. And she did. And they recorded 16 hours of dialogue. And they use that dialogue verbatim. Each episode is a different "style". So the first episode was live music and dance. And it encompassed birth to about kindergarten. The styles change drastically over each episode. The next "styles" were 80's dance-themed, murder mystery style, an animation, and a book. A freaking book. While an organ played wildly live in the background.
The woman in the recordings is only speaking on the seemingly mundane. Memories, flashes of thought, remembrances, feelings. But the entire "style" of the piece, making each and every "episode" EPIC. Well. That was what touched me. Truly.
Life is precious.
Listening to her talking about Fisher Price toys, the differing smells of her friend's houses growing up, Judy Bloom novels, having her first friend fight. All these details brought up SO MUCH FOR ME. So many memories washed over me. Moments I was proud of, moments I was ashamed of, moments I had forgotten about. What the woman was going through when she first recorded this dialogue (which is now being retold by the company members on stage, including herself) I was going through in the theatre. Laughing, relating, crying.
It got to be a little overwhelming for me.
I had a hard time keeping it together in the theatre during the animation segment, because she talked about her family cat Bentley. And after watching about 10.5 hours of theatre by that point, I couldn't hold in my emotions anymore. It was too much for me to handle. Even writing this now I'm misting up. I kind of quietly exploded in the theatre.
The piece is oddly universal. It's a celebration of life. It's realizing that while you think what you have to say isn't worthwhile, but in fact it's important. You are important. We are important.
It seems as though they tour often and all over the world. So if you get a chance take some time and go see it. My favorite episode was Episode 1, but all of them are thoroughly enjoyable, if not a bit off-putting and odd. Well not a bit. In fact there were a lot of off-putting moments. But really it didn't feel as though I was sitting there for hours on end. It flies by.
Go see it. Experience life. This beautiful life.
Until next time.
-Cindy
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