Gob Squad could change the world if we let it. We could bravely step into this celebration of beauty, simplicity, humanity and surprise, thereby allowing their vision of the banal as remarkable to overtake us. We have lost our wonder, world, and Gob Squad is quietly determined to give it back to us.
Kitchen (You’ve Never Had it So Good), currently running at The Public, is a must-see for anyone interested in creating theater that experiments with narrative, video, ensemble-devised process, transparency, or humor. This unexpected evening explores the films of Andy Warhol, but doesn’t, really. It uses the premises of his films Kitchen, Screen Test, and others as springboards from which to play with really big, really small, and really stupid (in the best possible sense of the word) ideas. Without giving too much away, these performers are somewhat inept, and find themselves challenged in their self-prescribed roles recreating Warhol’s world. They are clearly from the present, they are European (as opposed to the very American subjects Warhol explored), and their unscripted, improvisational style allows them to banter with one another about a perceived lack of authenticity regarding any number of their poorly chosen proposals: from making coffee to looking casual to inciting a revolution.
Each performer introduces him/herself by saying, “Hello, I’m Nina. Playing Nina”. From the start, we are made aware of the many layers of artifice in front of us: a scrim at the proscenium edge of the stage shows live video footage of the action taking place in real time onstage behind said scrim and projected onto it; the performers are playing themselves; the light and sound is edited and adjusted in plain sight. Even the Trader Joe’s Organic Corn Flakes are “playing Kellogg’s Corn Flakes”. Somehow, the less they do as performers, the more we see, and we are shown all the mechanisms of theater. There are no secrets here. Gradually, these layers of artifice are both compounded and pulled away.
The first time I saw this show in the 2011 UTR Festival, there were many moments when my audience of jaded New Yorkers held its collective breath in anticipation of something miraculous and beautiful unfolding before us. We stepped willingly into Gob Squad’s trust circle, believing that they could somehow show us the beauty of ourselves and consequently the beauty of Andy Warhol’s intention behind Kitchen: just real people, standing around, unaffected, a true slice of our human pie, with shared foibles, fears, and fantastic-ness presented without commentary or irony. If we permit ourselves to see our world and the people in it as the Gob Squad does, it is almost too gorgeous to bear.
Gob Squad’s Kitchen is funny, surprising, and one of the best things I have seen in the last year by far. Run to get your ticket, for sooner than you think this company will board a plane bound for another continent. If we are not careful, they will inadvertently take their magic with them. I think they would much rather give it away (knowing that much more can be found in the linty pockets of other people), and I, for one, am a happy recipient of their gifts.
Gob Squad’s
Kitchen (You’ve Never Had it So Good)
presented by The Public Theater
Devised and Performed by: Johanna Freiburg, Sean Patten, Sharon Smith, Berit Stumpf, Sarah Thom, Bastian Trost, Simon Will
With: Erik Polod, Nina Tecklenburg, Laura Tonke
And members of the audience
Through 2/5
More info and tickets at http://www.publictheater.org/
Catherine Mueller Catherine has been the Co-Artistic Director of The Glass Contraption since 2005, producing, developing and performing in all the company’s works, including CLOWNS (Public Theater/NY Clown Theater Festival), Ted (National Arts Festival, South Africa/NY Clown Theater Festival/Ars Nova), Curiosities (Gowanus Arts), Animals' Heads (The Kitchen), Triumph and Disaster (Jalopy Theater), and Facedancing, a short film. As both performer and writer, her solo works have been featured in the NY Solo Play Lab, the Estrogenius Festival at MTS, and in Chicago's Annual Single File Solo Performance Festival, among others. Additional performance credits include Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Moonwork), Emilia in Othello (dir. Alex Correia), and Platypus in 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird (dir. Dan Rigazzi). Her work is also featured in numerous national network commercials, voiceovers and on the Chris Rock Show. She has studied physical comedy and clown, bouffon, mask and movement, with Master teachers Christopher Bayes, Philippe Gaulier, Gregor Paslawsky, Felix Ivanov, Per Brahe, and many others, and the Viewpoints technique with the SITI Company. She completed a teaching apprenticeship under Master Clown and Director Christopher Bayes, currently Head of Physical Acting at Yale School of Drama. She has led residencies in clown and physical theater in schools, community arts organizations, universities, professional training programs and with theatre companies throughout the country. Since 1999, she has worked extensively with the 52nd Street Project. She is also a published poet. Education: Hofstra University (BA in Theater and Creative Writing).
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