I like performance art as much as the next girl. Miguel Gutierrez and the Powerful People’s Last Meadow features all the mainstays of performance art. Overwhelming industrial soundscape, wigs, cross dressing, simulated masturbation, simulated intercourse, repetition, witty monologues, innovative dance/movement. I should have loved it. I should have thought it was brilliant. I didn’t. I felt oppressed and wanted to escape. I was ready to leave after 20 minutes. I wasn’t released until 70 more minutes of wacky Brooklyn over the top I-want-to-be-arty-ness.
Last Meadow had its moments. I was saved momentarily by a laugh out loud adult version of follow the leader. A post-modern break in the action ¾’s of the way through the performance, house lights up, the three principals talking to each other as if they were off stage added a little meta-narrative that is always appreciated. And who doesn’t love people dancing in their underwear like teenagers to ridiculous pop music blasting at decibels only young eardrums can handle. The other moments, the other way too many moments of Last Meadow featured sound design by TBA darling Neal Medlyn who embraced his love of the industrial revolution and drew the audience into a factory of sound that never let us forget that THIS IS PERFORMACE ART. The best moments of Last Meadow let the dancers dance and I wished there was more movement and less everything else.
Ariel Frager is a TBA junkie who tends to think, at least in September, that Portland is the center of the universe.
you felt “oppressed?” really? I know this is Portland and all, but come on, you could have left.