Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Mallory Catlett’s dazzling, hypnotic THIS WAS THE END conjures a sort of singularity, via Chekhov

• By drediman
• June 17, 2018
• No Comments

Paul Zimet in Mallory Catlett’s “This Was the End” at Mabou Mines Theater.

Last night at the Mabou Mines Theater in the East Village, I was thrilled to have been able to catch the final performance of the return engagement of Mallory Catlett’s singular This Was the End (the piece was previously staged in 2014 at the Chocolate Factory). The hypnotic performance piece, a 70-minute riff on Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, is remarkable in a number of respects. First, it utilizes a quartet of actors all over the age of 60 – the superb Black-Eyed Susan, Jim Himelsbach, Rae C. Wright, and Paul Zimet – a rare and happy occurrence in the performing arts.

In the piece, they interact with projected video images of themselves set to a throbbing, hallucinatory remixed soundtrack (kudos to tape DJ G. Lucas Crane) of these actors performing a past production of Uncle Vanya.   Those of you not familiar with the classic underlying play may leave the theater a little befuddled (a similar to Elevator Repair Service’s Everyone’s Fine with Virginia Woolf currently running at Abrons Arts Center), but there’s enough sensational stagecraft here to mesmerize the uninitiated.

Indeed, This Was the End takes the Wooster Group’s disciplined approach of reviving ghosts and memories in palpable, haunting ways a step further through some of the most dazzlingly immersive application of cutting edge technology I’ve experienced in a performance. Acting, stagecraft, set, projections, soundscapes, and lighting all seamlessly come together in vital ways that inform each other, creating a sort of singularity. Time and space collapse to conjure a realm where the past is present forevermore.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

THIS WAS THE END
Off-Broadway, Play/Performance
1 hour, 10 minutes (without an intermission)
Mabou Mines Theater
Closed