Review

Astronome

Ontological Theater @ St. Mark's Church

March 8, 2009

Reviewed by Vanloan

vanloan@nyconstage.org

Once again, that avant-garde shaman extraordinaire Richard Foreman continues to shock and awe. His latest environmental theater piece (an annual event at St. Mark's in the Bowery) Astronome covers new territory. Subtitled A Night at the Opera, Astronome is a collaboration with John Zorn, the musical composer who has been a pivotal player in the downtown music scene since 1975. He has created music in a variety of genres that defy easy categorization. A very suitable partner for Foreman it would seem. Upon receiving one's ticket at the box office, we are also encouraged to take a pair of ear plugs. It's wise to do so.

After exploring the use of video in his last three endeavors (known as the Bridge Project), Foreman seems to want to explore a more aural approach to his work. It works, I feel, better than the use of video. Foreman's work is so highly and intensely visual in itself that the film techniques of the Bridge Project while interesting were often distracting. We were never quite sure where to focus our attention which is of course exactly what "le Maestro" wanted. However, Zorn's contribution is a taped 34 minute aural assault that totally energizes Foreman's visual pyrotechnics. The composition is an ear-splitting, heavy metal composition that while integral to the work never upstages it. It has definitely pushed Foreman towards the non-verbal. Usually his pieces are filled with cryptic, Jungian phrases that startle as much as intrigue. Astronome is almost wordless and his bizarre tableaux's are punctuated with eerie moans, sighs and screams that compliment Zorn's soundscape. These two MacArthur "Genius" winners are a match made in heaven.

True Foreman "junkies" like myself will not be disappointed however. The usual dense scenarios are all in place. A giant saltshaker takes a prominent place in the proceedings as does an oft attempted beheading. Some one named Mandel Schwarze is called for throughout the show while a green headed, one-eyed ogre evoking a devil stares down at us from stage right and makes several attempts to strangle himself. The seven member ensemble is outfitted in pseudo-Arabian style costumes with the ever present Fez headgear (a Foreman trademark). While never fully sure of Foreman's intent (part of the innate satisfaction of his work), he seems to be striving for some reconciliation of the mind-body conflict or as he says in the show's notes "urges inside us that are hopefully transcended". In reality, it's the audience that's transcended in this delirious Foreman/Zorn heart-pounding extravaganza.

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