THE HANGOVER REPORT – Christopher Green’s PRURIENCE is immersive theater at its XXX (pun intended)

Christopher Green in "Prurience" at the Guggenheim Museum.

Christopher Green in “Prurience” at the Guggenheim Museum.

It’s been a while since New Yorkers have had the pleasure of indulging in a new immersive theatrical experience. Before starting to seem like a passing fad, Prurience comes prancing along, albeit unexpectedly and for a very short run (it’s in town just through the end of the month) at the Guggenheim Museum. The brainchild of Christopher Green, who had staged the piece previously (with Holly Race Roughan) at the Southbank Centre in London, Prurience is set up as a self-help group for porn addicts (!), with the session being moderated by Mr. Green himself.

Performance and reality start to get blurred when you realize that the some of the people contributing to the session are actors. Indeed, these performers are scattered among the group, and you may very well be seated next to one of them. When the performance gets to the point when you can pretty much tell who’s an actor and who isn’t (but really, aren’t we all essentially acting on some level in such group settings? … and just generally?) and the dialogue more obviously the stuff of conventional stage drama, Mr. Green turns the show in on itself in a way that once again blurs performance and reality.

I won’t give anything away, but it’s one of those supremely heady and intoxicating – but oh so elusive – pull-the-rug-from-beneath-you moments in the art that I find terribly, seductively addictive. It’s a reason I go to performances regularly, constantly searching for similar thrilling highs. Gosh, it’s starting to sound like maybe I do need counseling?

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

 

PRURIENCE
Off-Broadway, Play
The Guggenheim Museum
1 hour, 40 minutes (with one intermission)
Through March 30

Categories: Off-Broadway, Theater

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