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BOB
* Conceived and directed by Anne Bogart * Created and performed by Will Bond * Text arranged by Jocelyn Clarke * New York Theatre Workshop, through May 31. |
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“The reason we work in the theater,” says the title character of Bob, “is to ask ‘What is it?’” Well, what is Bob? Here’s a short list. It’s a chatty introduction to the personality of internationally acclaimed theater director Robert Wilson, who has rocked the opera world with controversial spectaculars from Philip Glass’s 1976 Einstein on the Beach to his minimalist Lohengrin at the Metropolitan Opera earlier this year. Pieced together from his writings and interviews, it’s a breezy primer on Wilson’s artistic philosophy, which prizes magic and mystery above all. “Naturalism is killing theater!” Bob bellows. “Give me some vodka and I’ll tell you who’s to blame.” It’s an entertaining solo show about an influential fashion figure little-known to the general public, not unlike Mary Louise Wilson’s portrait of Diana Vreeland, Full Gallop. It’s a theatrical hommage to Wilson’s work, incorporating trademark images from his major productions. It’s an elegant and loving valentine from one avant-garde titan, director Anne Bogart, to another (neither of whom has ever made a secret of their homosexuality). And it’s a bravura performance by actor Will Bond, who delivers a physically astonishing impersonation of a brilliant and mercurcial artist. The Advocate, June 9, 1998 |
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