Witnesses relocated to La MaMa

Javier Perez and Saori Tsukada in Eterniday (Photo by Adele Bossard)

Let me tell you: Watching Witness Relocation theater troupe while dealing with the last but tenacious dregs of jet lag is a very weird thing. The wacky disjointedness gets even more disjointed, and if something isn't making clear sense--I don't know: something about clouds, something about love, something about traffic circles, something about Don Quixote, and I can't even read my notes at this point--well, who's fault is that? If jet lag is all the ultimate trouble of drinking without any of the fun, Witness Relocation's frothy, boisterous Eterniday--running now at La MaMa's Ellen Stewart Theatre through April 21--provides the fun part. When New Agey metaphysicians talk about how material things are, in essence, energy, they're talking about Witness Relocation, and the prevailing energies here, at La MaMa, are luminous, airily poetic, un-ironically romantic and playfully sexy.

While the usual suspects--Mike Mikos and Sean Donovan--are capable and charming beyond measure, I think you'll especially enjoy Saori Tsukada's star turn (how vibrantly she embodies the Witness Relocation dance/acting nexus) as well as the plummy intonations of Carey Harrison (son of Rex) whose larger-than-life image comes to us by way of video.

Members of Witness Relocation in Eterniday's strobe light segment (photo by Jonathan Slaff)

Written by Chuck Mee. Directed and choreographed by Dan Safer. Co-created and performed by Nikki Calonge, Sean Donovan, Vanessa Koppel, Kate Lee, Mike Mikos, Javier Perez, Saori Tsukada and Carey Harrison.

See Eterniday now through April 21. For information and tickets, click here.

La MaMa (Ellen Stewart Theatre)
66 East 4th Street (between Bowery and Second Avenue), Manhattan

(map/directions) 

When dizzy critics happen to good performers

It's good for critics to remember that we're humble humans...and ones who must mind our health. Last night, I got a vivid reminder at Club La MaMa when I tried to concentrate on a show that, I'm very sorry to tell you, was up for only one night.

I had no idea how exhausted I was until I realized that while I felt somewhat sleepy over the course of the two-hour show, I felt much more like falling over with dizziness. I've heard too many stories about people who got the flu this winter who started out by feeling dizzy. (And my wife suffered a severe case of vertigo this season.) I'd gotten my flu shot. In the summer of 2006, I was diagnosed with a mild, stable case of a lung disorder and must get the shot each year, although I've always gotten one anyway. But I'd heard that this year's shot doesn't cover every strain that's out there. The good news, today, is that I have not come down with the flu, and I feel somewhat better. I'm going to get more rest and try to make it to Bill T. Jones's Breaking Ground discussion at Harlem Stage tonight.

Now, as for last night's show....to Joseph Keckler (singer, writer and multimedia artist), who presented a monologue named Cat Lady, my apologies. Even through my difficulties, I could tell that you have mad talent, and I look forward to catching up with your work another time. To John Moran (composer) and Saori Tsukada (choreographer), who performed John Moran...and his neighbor Saori, you are both fierce--frighteningly so--just as savvy colleagues had promised. Despite my condition last night, I was impressed, amused and charmed by your visual and sonic ideas, your whimsical and razor-sharp synchronization of sound and mime, and I am prepared to become a huge fan. Would Nicky Paraiso, Club La MaMa's performance curator, have the three of you back, if I ask nice?

For more La MaMa events and information, click here.
Joseph Keckler on MySpace
John Moran and Saori Tsukada on MySpace