Thursday, March 6: 7 pm
I was a little nervous for my return to
The Drowned Man. Although I had only been away for just over two
months, things had changed dramatically inside, with the departure of
so many beloved performers and the arrival of many new ones. While
perusing other people's show reports since the arrival of the new
cast, I'd managed to draw up a list of more than forty
character/performer combinations that I wanted to follow – and I
had less than eighteen loops worth of show to do it in. There was no
way I was going to pull it all off. Then, on top of that, I arrived
in the queue to see an entirely new name on the cast board –
another one to add to the list, just to make it more difficult.
Of all the new cast members, one name
kept coming up as a must see: Sean Edwards as Badlands Jack. I
considered saving him for a later show, as he plays Jack exclusively
and I would have plenty of opportunities to catch him (or so I
thought – see later shows for more on this), which was not the case
for many of the other people on my list. But as I climbed into the
lift, I realized that I was just too excited to put it off – why
not start strong? So I exited the lift into town and began my search
for Badlands Jack.
He proved elusive at first – no sign
of him in the saddlery, or the San Berdoo office, he wasn't bumming
around the saloon, or the drugstore. Finally, I passed by his
trailer and caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of my eye
– it wasn't empty. Or was it? I took a closer look and, lo and
behold, there was indeed a sullen, motionless figure slumped on the
bed, barely visible in the dark. I took a step into the cramped
space, and he slowly lifted his head to stare me down. I backed
away, instinctively, and he rose to his feet, those dead,
angry eyes boring holes into my face. I had awakened the sleeping
dragon.
A few more steps and we were both
outside of the trailer, where he sprung to life, suddenly unaware of
my presence. He stumbled and stalked through town, simultaneously
more of a train wreck and more in control than any other Jack I've
seen. In contrast to Julian Stolzenberg's blustery, swaggering
Jack, Sean was much quieter, more sinister, and more frightening –
both to me and to the characters he encountered.
The one (partial) exception was the
Drugstore Girl (Anna Finkel), who seemed to take pity on him (in
addition to the fear, of course). They shared a surprisingly tender
moment as he tried to pull her hand into his, one finger at a time,
before he got frustrated and started tormenting her with Andy's
jacket.
Not long after the drugstore, he pulled
me into his trailer for my first 1:1 of the trip. The content was
very similar to what I'd heard before, but Sean's intensity really
spiced it up. It ended, just as before, with an invitation to the
hoedown. This was the point where I really felt the warm rush of
returning to a place that I love. It's such a great scene, passing
through several different moods and bringing together nearly all of
the outside the gates characters. It was kind of like seeing old
friends again, even though the fact that William (Rob McNeil) was
blonde and Andy (Nicola Migliorati) was dark haired kept messing with
my head. It was also my first look at a couple of old Sleep No More
favorites, Luke Murphy and Lily Ockwell, in their new roles, which
only added to the feeling. I was a happy guy. I also managed to
continue my streak of getting in Dwayne (Luke)'s way, accidentally
forcing him to bowl me over on his way to the post-coital battle
royale.
After the fight concluded, things began
to diverge significantly from my previous Jack loop. The barman
(Jude Monk McGowan) gave him a parcel with an envelope, and we
proceeded into the saddlery, where he opened the envelope and found
it full of feathers. This kicked off an aggressive, somewhat
acrobatic journey through town, as Jack jerked from spotlight to
spotlight, flinging his limbs every which way, falling to the ground
repeatedly, stopping off at the drugstore, and finally making his way
to one of the hotel rooms, where he opened the package and found a
noose inside. This seemed to upset him emotionally, but calm him
physically, and he set out the back door toward his trailer.
Or so I thought.
In fact, the noose just riled him up
even more. Halfway out the door, he flung himself back into the
room. All I could do was plaster myself to the wall and hold on for
dear life as he threw himself around the room, in and out both doors,
over the bed, and up the walls. It was really something to see, and
felt dangerous in a way that very little else in The Drowned Man ever
has. If Sean hadn't already sold me on his Jack a half-dozen times
over already, this would have done it.
Finally, we retreated to the saddlery,
where Jack managed to rid himself of the noose, hanging it over a
light fixture. He then headed to the trailer and, surprisingly, took
someone else in for a 1:1. I say surprisingly because of the timing
– it was reset time. Apparently, Jack doesn't have a reset scene.
How bizarre. I hung around for several minutes, waiting for him to
emerge, but nothing came of it. Eventually a stark naked Dwayne and
his entourage of young, female white masks passed arrived, and I
decided to move on – just around the corner, the new Romola (Aoi
Nakamura) would soon be waking up. May as well see what she's all
about.
I found my way to the car, where she
was asleep on the shoulder of a white mask. No sooner had she begun
to move, however, than Jack stumbled past. Thus ended my first
Romola loop of the trip. Back to Jack.
The beginning of the loop finds Jack in
the motel office, reading a book. Last time, I spent most of the
scene looking around the office and, occasionally, glancing back at
Jack to make sure I wasn't missing anything. This time was a whole
different story. I was completely engrossed just watching him make
faces at the things he was reading, contorting all of his features
into new and bizarre shapes. He also occasionally pulled out a pair
of comically tiny opera glasses in order to spy on people across the
street.
After this came the apple
eating/watching the world go by scene that I loved so much last time.
This time, it wasn't quite so exciting. The timing of things must
have changed, because I didn't see nearly as many
criss-crossing bits of scenes out in the street. A little
disappointing, but the new (to me, anyway) conclusion where Jack
finds a miniature noose inside his mouth (!) made up for it.
The next chunk of time was largely
spent drinking, until Jack was eventually accosted near his trailer
by Miguel (Ed Warner) and given a package to deliver to Temple
Studios. Instead of getting right on his new task, he grabbed
another girl for a 1:1 and disappeared into his trailer. Since this
was, by my calculations, very near to where I picked him up, I
decided not to wait for him to return and instead pick up with
Miguel.
Almost immediately, Miguel headed
upstairs to the desert for an anointing session with the Dust Witch
(Katy Balfour) that was much more elaborate than I remembered, going
through multiple phases, traveling partway across the set, and making
heavy use of his tarot card. Then came the washing in the tent, and
– you know, I honestly don't have a tremendous amount to say about
this loop. This is my second attempt at Miguel, and while he does
some very cool stuff, I just don't seem to really get into his story.
Can't really explain it.
I will admit that I have sold Ed's
Miguel, in particular, short in the past. I've always disliked him
because of the way he runs out on Faye, as opposed to Ygal Jerome
Tsur's Miguel, who gets pulled away by the tarot card. Turns out,
though, that by actually following Ed's Miguel out of the room, I got
to see that he just waited until he was alone to indicate what was
going on with him. He was also pulled away, and is also just as
upset about the whole thing. The way his hand shook when he held the
card up to Mary was pretty striking.
But still, like I said, I wasn't really
getting into it. So when he disappeared into a 1:1 shortly
pre-reset, I decided to try something else. I headed down to the
basement, hoping to catch the new Conrad (Ben Whybrow) at the top of
his loop. I wound up a little early, and spent some time checking
out the last few rooms I hadn't yet seen (the sunflower room, the
rather scary pitch-black projector room) until he stumbled out into
the hallway, shocked and entranced.
Right away, there was a huge contrast
with Adam Burton's Conrad. If I had to pick one word to describe
Adam's Conrad, it would be “cold.” He was aloof, weary,
absolutely confident in his ability to deal with any shit that came his way, but
not especially excited about doing so. Ben's Conrad, on the other
hand, had more of a warmth and youthful vitality to him. He was a
young up-and-comer, and while he maintained that Conrad aloofness, it
was less certain, more fragile.
Almost immediately we headed up to the
Seamstress's shop, where he changed into his drag outfit. This is
something I had been curious about – because, you see, Ben has a
moustache. How well could he possibly pull off a dress and wig
ensemble if he has a moustache? Turns out, the answer is: pretty
damn well. Shockingly well, really. I guess it makes sense –
he's not meant to actually be fooling anyone. No one actually thinks
he's a woman (well, except for the Barman. But he's special). With
Conrad all glammed up, off we went to the Horse and Stars for the
Never Go Home Anymore sequence, which Ben really just knocked out of
the park. While I still prefer Adam's portrayal overall, he can't touch Ben's Conrad-in-drag.
Presumably this isn't actually a
change, but it was the first time that I noticed Dwayne instructing
Conrad to distract William. Before, I always assumed Dwayne just
took advantage of the opportunity – but no, it's all planned. Of
course it is. Don't know what I was thinking.
At the end of the scene, I found myself
standing at the center of the curved portion of the bar while the
Barman undressed Conrad, which is definitely the place to watch this
from. The lights streaming in from from the other side threw them
into silhouette, adding a tremendous sense of drama and grandeur.
Perhaps inappropriately so, but it meant that a scene I wouldn't
normally think about much turned into something memorable, so I
highly recommend it,
Soon after, we came to the hotel room,
where Conrad delivered his lecture while changing into his
man-clothes. Had a bit of trouble with white masks not following
instructions – every time Conrad told the guy at the back door to
hold it shut, he jiggled the handle and let it go. Come on, man.
Also, sometime in the last two months,
Conrad's weird self-help/cult/religion thing seems to have morphed
from something inspired by Scientology to actual Scientology. Which
was kind of weird.
Down into the studio after that, and
Conrad almost immediately took someone else into his dressing room
for the 1:1. While I waited outside, Andrea (Fania Grigoriou)
arrived and changed into her magic trick costume. Well, she changed
into her Infidelity Ballet costume, anyway, which now apparently
covers both scenes. Not sure why - perhaps they realized that Andrea
has a silly number of costume changes and decided to cut one.
Anyway, this was when I started to waffle in my dedication to
Conrad's loop. You see, I sure do like Andrea. And I sure do like
Fania. And I sure haven't ever actually followed Fania's Andrea.
Fortunately, I didn't have to decide right away – they both headed
off to Studio 3 together to perform their magic trick.
The magic trick was fun, as always, and
ended with something I hadn't seen – Andrea emerged from the box
fully clothed, and Conrad yelled at her for it. Every other time I
saw the scene, she stripped down to her underwear, and Conrad yelled
at her for showboating. I prefer the other way – it adds another
layer of trickery to the magic trick, and makes for a funny surprise.
On the other hand, the idea that she was supposed to strip and
didn't feels appropriate for Fania's take on Andrea specifically
(more on this later). I do wonder whether this is a difference
between performers, or a universal change since the last time I was
at the show.
But enough about that – you're
probably wondering whether I decided to stick with Conrad or switch
to Andrea, right? Well. . . . what do you think?
So I followed Andrea up to the
Infidelity Ballet. At this point in the show, doing the Andrea loop
really means doing the Andrea-and-Wendy loop, which meant I finally
got my first look at another Sleep No More favorite, Leslie Kraus.
For me, the Infidelity Ballet is really a litmus test for Wendy. I
can't really explain why, but if you tell me someone is playing
Wendy, my first thought is “how is her Infidelity Ballet?” Well,
I'm pleased to say that Leslie nailed it. Nailed it. This is the
second time she's done the impossible, successfully replacing Sophie
Bortolussi in a Punchdrunk show.
This scene was also the point where I
started to see more of the difference between Fania's Andrea and the
other versions. She's much more introverted and insecure – seems
to enjoy performing and being the center of attention while playing a
character, but as soon she steps out of the character, she shuts down
a bit. When Frankie (Conor Doyle) goes on and on about how hot she
is, she's extremely uncomfortable with it – she even, when no one
else was looking, muttered to herself “I'm really not.”
I also noticed, for the first time, the
Seamstress (Kathryn McGarr) whispering something to Andrea about
Wendy. Something upsetting. Something really quiet, damn it. No
idea what she said, but I found myself oddly obsessed with finding
out.
Come the end of the scene, I found
myself stared down by two characters in rapid succession, as first
Claude (Ira Siobhan) visually expressed his displeasure with the fact
that I was standing somewhere in the vicinity of his way, and then
Wendy took a moment to mistake me for Marshall. The latter is one of
the more disconcerting bits of interaction in the show, because Wendy
is INTENSE. Doubly so now, as Leslie seems to externalize her
madness more than the others do.
The discussion between Wendy and Andrea
about the exec party seems to have transplanted itself from the
dressing room to the walk down to the dressing room, which I
wholeheartedly approve of – it's fun, and kind of enriches the
world when the transitions between scenes are also scenes themselves.
This has always been a part of the show, but it feels like it's
expanded since last I visited.
Speaking of changes since last time,
this also the first point where I noticed the new costumes that have
been worked in – both of the girls changed into outfits that were
completely unfamiliar to me. I like Wendy's new red dress quite a
bit, but I have to admit I miss the old light purple dress that
Andrea used to wear – it was simpler and, er, slinkier. Ah,
well.
Soon we were off to the exec
party/orgy, with a brief stop in the hallway for Andrea to give me
her invitation. I'm at the point where I have pretty much nothing
left to say about that scene, having seen it so many times, but I do
have to admit that I was glad to catch both the orgy and the hoedown
in the same show – as the two big group setpieces, it wouldn't
really feel like I was back without the both of them.
Then, in a flash, the show was nearly
over. I rushed back upstairs with Andrea and Wendy (and again, the
trip upstairs is now much more a part of the scene) and after a few
brief moments, Andrea took my hand and led me to the finale. I would
like to proudly announce that, for perhaps the first time ever, I did
not stand in between Andrea and the cupboard at the precise moment
that she needed to get into it. Advantage: Brian. Hopefully that
makes up for the moment on the way out of the orgy where I managed to
step into her way twice in my attempt to step out of her way, on
account of forgetting exactly where the door was. Advantage: no one.
At the finale, she pulled what I call
the “Essing Maneuver,” whereby instead of clutching my shoulders like most of the performers do, she wrapped her arms around
my torso and thrust her hands into my gut with each stab of the
scissors, and then squeezed/lifted me up as Wendy did the same to
Marshall. Now, I am not a small man, and I was impressed with how
easily David Essing seemed able to lift me – but Fania actually had
no more trouble than he did. How such strength can reside in such a
slender form is beyond me. I'm telling you, man, dancers.
Seriously.
Finally, after enthusiastically
praising Wendy's performance, she dropped me off by the caravans to
watch the finale (it's the best place to watch it from) and my night
came to an end. One down, five to go.
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