After last year’s profoundly enjoyable/enjoying-ly profound Ballet Brut, I couldn’t wait to see what the OK Theater had ready for us this year. But “No Dice” is very, very different than what I expected. (In a wonderful, albeit difficult way.)

(So. Last year, when Nature Theater cam around it was. Um. Really great and really surprising. Because they just danced. And it was totally, like. non-verbal. .. But this year, they just, talked. And it was the meaningless junk we all say...)*

All of OK’s charm was there, especially in Anne, who is impossible not to adore, but while OK was still utilizing their clever, subversive way of delivering their message, instead of giving it to you in thoroughly enjoyable dance, it was delivered in the banal, clumsy, and fearful dialog of everyday American conversation.

(So it was kind of difficult? Because it was 4 hours long. And they just, like repeat things. And they try to connect but it's all, um, really trying and phony.)*

There was still dance, of course. And Nature Theater’s hipster Bollywood is a most pleasant interruption to what was sometimes painful self analytics. I never would have thought a Hasidic Pirate could be so difficult. But OK’s ending message of hope makes it all worth it. They show you that you talk like an idiot, and that it is because you are awkward, and nervous, a bit pretentious, and afraid people won’t like you, but that if you drop some of that, you can have more focused, connecting dialog, and you will be a better person, (or at least judged to be) because “One might describe a civilization in terms of the quality of its conversations.” But hopefully they’ll also take into account the deconstructionist theater it produces.

(but then of course. That's the point, and it's how we all sound, when we're not, like, filtering all the bullshit. And at the end they say that we are judged by our conversations, which is really... powerful. It's kind of an indictment, but at the same time, like, um. an opportunity.)*

Listen to the chat with Kassys and OK Theater here.

* I transcribed a verbal review of myself. ouch.

by Abe

hollaback?