Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Jenn Kidwell’s deviously confrontational WE COME TO COLLECT questions the intrinsic merits of capitalism

• By drediman
• September 7, 2025
• No Comments

Last week, Jenn Kidwell’s immersive and deviously confrontational fantasia we come to collect: a flirtation, with capitalism opened Off-Broadway at The Flea in downtown Manhattan. In short, the darkly vaudevillian two-hander — starring Kidwell and ASL artist Brandon Kazen-Maddox — interrogates the intrinsic merits of capitalism and the resultant insatiability of American consumerism. In a series of highly interactive, largely improvised encounters (for those of you sensitive to excessive audience participation, be forewarned), Kidwell and Kazen-Maddox perform a sort of collective exorcism that demands complete attention surrender to do its work.

Aesthetically, we come to collect conjures a twisted, surreally post-societal universe, transpiring in front of a mirror in which the audience’s reflection is in plain sight throughout the performance, as if a constant reminder of our complicity in it all. Although the play often provides a poetically incisive commentary and critiques about the grotesque end game of the capitalist system, its loose pageant-like structure can also arguably come across as frustratingly haphazard. Indeed, in watching the piece, a part of me missed the dramatic cohesion and arc of the equally artful Underground Railroad Game, Kidwell’s previous effort (with actor Scott Sheppard) that delved into the similarly spiky topic of slavery. That being said, there’s a sense of dangerous unpredicability that pervades Kidwell and Adam Lazarus’s staging that makes for its own brand of visceral theatricality.

Despite any reservations about the material, there’s no denying the skill and exuberance, in turn terrifying and hilarious, of the two performances. Like unabashedly caustic clowns, Kidwell and Kazen-Maddox — in good cop, good cop manner — deliver voracious yet awesomely self-aware performances that steer the show into some rather sticky and murky places with unnerving vaudevillian glee. Kidwell, in particular, is fearless, performing her own work with ferocious commitment. Fully present and attuned to the energy of each audience, the duo all but ensures that no two shows will be the same, invariably leaving audiences a bit disoriented — if not startled — as they spill out onto the fancy streets of Tribeca.

RECOMMENDED

WE COME TO COLLECT: A FLIRTATION, WITH CAPITALISM
Off-Broadway, Play
The Flea
1 hour, 20 minutes (without an intermission)
Through September 27