Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Geoff Sobelle’s singular THE OBJECT LESSON dazzles at Studio Theatre

• By drediman
• May 26, 2016
• No Comments

I recently had a chance to catch Geoff Sobelle’s dazzling and immersive The Object Lesson on a recent trip to Washington, DC. The show made a big splash two seasons ago at BAM’s Next Wave Festival, where it was a sellout. The piece also won the 2014 Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh award, the top award bestowed upon a show at the venerated Festival Fringe. Mr. Sobelle’s show has now found its way to Washington, DC’s Studio Theatre via its adventurous Studio X program.

This singular show defies categorization – you’ll recognize elements of art installation, immersive theater, performance art, magic show, and conventional theater thrown into the pot – and yet it is uniquely and comfortably its own beast. Mr. Sobelle’s show is a loose-boned yet precisely calibrated meditation on the countless things that make up one’s life. The beautiful thing about the piece is that it neither glorifies nor condones our fascinating relationship with physical objects and asks the unsettling question, are we simply the culmination of the things we come across during our short time in this world? Are objects our only connection to immortality?

Mr. Sobelle joins a recent crop of solo performers who have taken the art of monologuing to a whole new level of artistic expression. I would put The Object Lesson firmly in the same category as Andrew Schneider’s Youarenowhere and Simon McBurney’s rumored-to-be Broadway-bound The Encounter. That’s high, high praise, indeed. Mr. Sobelle is a charismatic, yet frantic presence, and he’s quite the consummate performer – the way he so effortlessly melds his illusionist skills into the fabric of the show is astonishing to behold. There’s also something slightly desperate about his performance; his work has a searching, almost existential quality that really got under my skin.

The production is top-notch. The piece is superbly directed by David Neumann with a keen eye for surprises, big and small. The extraordinary design team includes Steven Dufala for his enveloping “scenic installation” design; Christopher Kuhl for his subtle, noir-like lighting design; and Nick Kourtides for his dynamic sound design. I heartily encourage you not to miss this one. You won’t see anything quite like it anytime soon.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

THE OBJECT LESSON
Regional, Play
Studio Theatre (Washington, DC)
1 hour, 30 minutes (without an intermission)
Through June 5