Starship Touchstone continues its now 35-years old exploratory voyage to the far reaches of wisdom and whimsy with 'Bhudoo', its "fable from far away" that is streaking across a constellation of theatrical venues in Bethlehem, PA through May 1, 2016.
Where you attend this show will undoubtedly impact how you feel about it. I saw it at Charles A. Brown IceHouse, the region's most cavernous black box. Future venues promise to offer, or deny, varying degrees of intimacy to the performance.
When you entered the theater and looked for a place to sit, you immediately realized you were there not simply to observe; you yourself were inescapably going to be closely scrutinized:
Your chairs were set next to one another on three sides to enclose a somewhat suffocating, flat playing area punctuated by 18-inch cubes in each corner and a triangular-shaped platform in the very center.
You sat and looked across this space into the faces of other not altogether comfortable pawns of the game that was about to be played. The lighting was harsh, the floor was bare; no stage set or props served to ease your sense of imminent exposure.
No place to run, no place to hide.
The show's Wookiee-ish director J.P. Jordan introduced his play by confirming that you would indeed be actively participating in the proceedings. When he was done, he sat on one of the chairs, and three actors ceremoniously entered the corral, strumming unkeles and singing a melodically pleasant ditty with an oft repeated lyric that sounded forbiddingly like the word "Voodoo".
If this were any other non-traditional theater company than Touchstone, I would have braced myself for the beheading of chickens and the reading of goat entrails.
But, there could be no gentler singers of Mr. Jordan's and co-writer Christopher Shorr's songs than Emma Chong, Mary Wright, and the ageless and leonine Bill George.
The script requires that its actors perform non-stop for more than eighty minutes, a formidable task on hard, uneven wooden planks and the incessant demands of telling their tale on a 360-degrees arc.
And, as one can always be assured at a Touchstone show, the performances were unfailing confident, earnest, and true.
Here's where a better scribe than I would venture a brief synopsis of the show. The difficulty is that Touchstone seems rarely troubled to obey traditional rules of narrative theater, such as clear exposition, or obvious beginning-middle-end. Instead, 'Bhudoo' blithely goes its own way, only occasionally bothering to explain what the hell is going on at any given moment.
And that's just fine. It really is.
Further clarity would almost certainly dispel the illusion of other-worldliness that is so artfully cast--- like a fishing net--- over the gathering.
And to its credit, I honestly feel that any Touchstone production is much more about how it makes you feel than about what it makes you think.
Touchstone performances are always gentle to a fault. Their movements rhyme, while their dialogue dances. Their stories are peaceful, soothing, tranquil, even at their most contentious moments. What passes for violence, if it surfaces at all, is almost apologetic.
If you really require a plot, let's say that the show consists of three highly polished performers--- you can variously regard them as songsters, dancers, acrobats, narrators, acquaintances--- talking to us about the Manichean nature of public participation in governance.
And not just talking about it, but playing it out, dropping and falling and rolling, and then abruptly bouncing back to their feet and doing some more talking and strumming and singing.
It all makes sense upon reflection. But, it makes sense in such a personal way that it can't--- or perhaps shouldn't--- be diminished by the written word.
At least, not by me.
Please note that the audience participation is quite innocuous, consisting of being handed a box of Mike-and-Ike's and asked to refrain from eating its contents long enough to use the colored candy beans as voting ballots for an election that really does affect the direction, if not the outcome, of the play.
Bhudoo performs March 31-April 3 at the Charles A. Brown Ice House (Thursday-Saturday at 8pm, Sunday at 2p); April 14-17 at Moravian College's Arena Theatre (Thursday-Saturday at 8pm, Sunday at 2p); April 30 outside of Advent Moravian Church (Saturday at 2pm); and May 1 outside in Saucon Park (Sunday at 2pm). Tickets are $25 for adults and $15 for students and seniors, with group rates available on request. Thursdays Touchstone offers a pay-what-you-will ticket option at the door, allowing walk up patrons to name their own ticket price. Advance tickets may be purchased at 610.867.1689 or online at www.touchstone.org