Review: The Wild (Walkabout Theater)

By Chicagotheaterbeat @chitheaterbeat

  
  
The Wild

Written by The Wild ensemble 
Directed by Thom Pasculli
at Steppenwolf Garage, 1624 N. Halsted (map)
thru April 20  |  tickets: $20   |  more info
  
Check for half-price tickets 
  
  
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A lengthy hour of abstract performance art

     

  

Walkabout Theater i/a/w Steppenwolf Garage Rep Series present

  

The Wild

Review by Keith Glab

Part of the 2014 Steppenwolf Garage Rep, The Wild was created over a six-month process of actor training and laboratory theater development. Based on Charles Mee’s The Bacchae 2.1 (which, in turn had been based on Euripides’ The Bacchae) and a number of other sources, The Wild sets out to examine “what happens to people when institutions crumble and deities fail to show up.” The unfortunate result is a pastiche of movement-based theater that fails to examine much of anything due to lack of grounded context.

The performance opens with a parade of pagan figures taken from Charles Fréger’s Wilder Mann. We then get the tiniest bit of specificity for this production, learning that the action is set 1700 years after the fall of the Greek gods. Pantheus makes a brief appearance and gets into a wrestling match with little provocation and no resolution. The characters and movement then become even more abstract, with occasional dialog vaguely addressing relationships or a dearth of happiness. At one point, there’s a sequence in which fads are discussed and those who do not agree with/adhere to the fads begin writhing in agony. It’s the most interesting part of the production, though I’m still not entirely sure how it relates to Dionysus.

An old-timey radio, beatbox, and voice modulation help punctuate the on-stage choreography, though again the relationship to Dionysus is anyone’s guess. The costumes are fun and bright, though the costume changes may or may not indicate a change in character – most of the performances are too stoic for the audience to tell. While the ensemble performs their complex movements skillfully and athletically, their actual acting leaves much to be desired. They somehow neither manage to convey emotion nor realism, and the failure to create distinct characters is primarily on the cast since they are the ones who devised the entire performance under the guidance of Thom Pasculli.

Perplexingly, with all of the shifts from indeterminate scene to indeterminate scene, we get no inclusion of wine, merely the suggestion of sex, and little specific ritual. The program materials prove that the ensemble knows that Dionysus is the god of wine, fertility, and ritual ecstasy, yet these elements barely get explored, if at all. It’s quite a shame that the six months of hard work the ensemble put into the production resulted in so little specificity to the subject matter they were attempting to address. The result of all that effort is but one long hour of unsubstantial ideas.

The Wild remains reasonably successful as a piece of abstract dance or performance art due to the impressive physicality of the cast and the vibrant colors of the production. But as theatre, it fails to establish characters, develop action, or tell a story. If you are looking for an hour of acrobatic spectacle with a few vaguely developed motifs thrown in, you may well enjoy the latest from Walkabout Theater. If you are looking for a coherent production relating to Dionysus as this one purports to do, you will be heavily disappointed.

  

Rating: ★★

  

  

The Wild continues through April 20th at Steppenwolf Garage, 1624 N. Halsted (map).  Tickets are $20, and are available by phone (312-335-1650) or online through their website. (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com). More information at Steppenwolf.org.  (Running time: 65 minutes, no intermission)

Photos by Joel Moorman 

     

artists

cast

Nigel Brown, McCambridge Dowd-Whipple, Al Evangelista, Cooper Forsman, Katie Mazzini, Dana Murphy, Paul Scudder

behind the scenes

Thom Pasculli (director), Stephanie Pasculli (set design), Paul Scudder and ensemble (costumes), Delia Baseman (costume advisor), Sarah Hughey (lighting design), Cooper Forsman and Andrew Rovner (sound design), Mikhail Fiksel (sound consultant), Al Evangelista and ensemble (choreography), Glenn Potter (production manager), Christopher Kristant (technical director), Dina Klahn (production stage manager), Katie Mazzini (rehearsal stage manager), Kendra Miller (dramaturg), Ellie Humphrys (asst. lighting design), Zsofia Otvos (make-up consultant), James Nardulli (asst. tech director), Megan Snowder (master electrician), Nora Taylor (marketing), Joel Moorman (photos)

 

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