One night in heaven

From the sound of things, there was a fair chance that Heaven on Earth--the Charles L. Mee play developed by director/choreographer Dan Safer's Witness Relocation and France's ildi ! eldi, running now at La MaMa--could well have become an incoherent hellish mess. But none of the collaborators were about to let that happen. And, in a way, that tells you what Heaven on Earth has to offer--a vision of surviving disaster by cherishing and living for the little things that matter.

Ildi ! Eldi is new to me--though now I already adore their Sophie Cattani, thanks to her radiant comic performance in this piece. But I have built-up trust that Witness Relocation will exhibit brazen talent and take me on strangely compelling, amusing journeys that I won't find anywhere else. The two troupes here bravely propel themselves into Mee territory--vast open space with some resonant landmarks to be visited, furnished, decorated or completely ignored as they wish. The playwright--best known for his work with Anne Bogart's SITI Company--has given Safer and his team leave to create Heaven on Earth, and the co-conspirators allot room for audiences to enter as they wish.

The physical place-ness of Heaven on Earth, and its sense of past seeping into the present and future, is very important. Jay Ryan (set/lighting) and Deb O (costume/props) have included elements from from previous Witness Relocation shows. During last night's post-show Q&A, Safer told us that the collaborators had asked themselves, "What happens if we just, literally, drop all the sets on top of one another?"

It takes a pretty sharp crew to construct a crisp, vital piece out of the recycled detritus of older ones. The resulting collage around Mee's diffuse and lovely grid adds to the hyper, hectic texture created, as always, by Safer's extraordinary approach to movement and text.

Here's my loving counsel to you, potential theater-goer: Attend--in both senses of that word--but don't try to keep up. Heaven on Earth will overtake you. Let it. Let go. Another lesson for anyone facing the end of the world (as we know it).

Cast and co-creators: Abigail Browde, Heather Christian, Sean Donovan and Mike Mikos from Witness Relocation; Sophie Cattani, Antoine Oppenheim and Francois Sabourin. Video by Kaz Phillips Safer. Sound by Ryan Maeker.

Heaven on Earth continues tonight and tomorrow at 7:30 and Sunday at 2:30. Program information here. For tickets, call 212-475-7710 or click here.

La MaMa

74A East 4th Street (between Bowery and Second Avenues), Manhattan