THE HANGOVER REPORT – Karen Finley’s UNICORN GRATITUDE MYSTERY giddily takes over where language leaves off

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Karen Finley in “Unicorn Gratitude Mystery”

For a couple of decades now, Karen Finley has been one of New York’s foremost and most recognizable performance artists. Her latest work, three short pieces entitled Unicorn Gratitude Mystery, respectively, is currently playing Sunday evenings at the Laurie Beechman Theater (located in the bowels of the West Bank Café on 42nd Street). This latest endeavor finds Ms. Finley in fiercely pointed shape, eschewing language as we know it in favor of hallucinatory verbal constructions. Ironically – and to Ms. Finley’s great credit – I derived more truth from these feverish diatribes than I do from news searches on the Internet.

The slight evening (the entire affair just lasts over an hour) begins with “Unicorn”, which pays homage to that most elusive of mythological creatures. Donned in a get-up that suggests a ludicrously psychedelic unicorn, Ms. Finley pokes holes in and smashes our fantasies of attaining the unattainable (happiness, anyone?). “Gratitude” finds our hostess costume changing into Hillary Clinton. In this second piece, Ms. Finley hilariously satirizes the political system and its associated rhetoric before unabashedly signaling that she’s “with her”. Lastly, “Mystery” triggers another costume change, this time Ms. Finely transforms herself into the singular Donald Trump. It’s a vicious impersonation – and a fascinating companion piece to monologist Mike Daisey’s latest piece playing downtown at Joe’s Pub – that’s also among the funniest to be found in town.

RECOMMENDED

 

KAREN FINLEY: UNICORN GRATITUDE MYSTERY
Off-Broadway, Play/Performance Art
Laurie Beechman Theater
1 hour, 10 minutes (without an intermission)
Plays Sundays through September 18

Categories: Off-Broadway, Theater

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