Bouffon Glass Menajoree was staged this weekend when the Ten Directions Production was hosted by Young Liars Theatre.
If you are, as I was, unfamiliar with the theatre style termed “bouffon”, here’s what Wikipedia says: “a modern French theater term that was re-coined in the early 1960s…to describe a specific style of performance work that has a main focus in the art of mockery.“ Tres avant-garde, even fifty years later. It goes on to explain that Jacqus LeCoq, the creator of the term, taught classes that emphasized “elements of burlesque, commedia dell'arte, farce, gallows humor, parody, satire, [and] slapstick”.
It is indeed based on Glass Menagerie, but very loosely – I suspect those unfamiliar with the story of the Tennessee Williams classic would be pretty lost. On the other hand, this isn’t the sort of show that attracts rookie theater-goers, it’s for the hard core among us.
Lynn Berg, one of the founders of Ten Directions, is Tom, costumed in a t-shirt showing his diaphragm in front and creating a hunchback behind his shoulders, plus cut-off jean shorts and white leggings resembling antiembolic stockings. His language and attitude toward his sister Laura, played by Audrey Crabtree. Crabtree is the other founder of the group. She wears a bloodied hospital gown open in the back and underwear with duct tape on it, and sports a platinum wig that is near-indescribable. Mother Amanda, Aimee Leigh German, who appears younger than Laura, merely sports pink jogging pants, white boots and another t-shirt stretched within a millimeter of its life, this time in the front of the torso.
The three actors created the script with director Eric Davis, who also did the original music and the frequently very interesting scenic design. It takes place in the present rather than in the twilight of the past, and there’s a fair amount of screaming involved, especially between the two not-so-loving siblings. Unsurprisingly, there’s audience participation involved, some of which is more elaborate than just catching cans of beer tossed from an onstage cooler.
All those elements named above came into play, certainly, as we hang out with the Wingfields. The difficulty is making out the difference between ninety minutes of this versus a certain adolescent how-much-can-we-shock-’em. At times this crept into the sort of feeling when some jokes were made over and over and over again, which left a can’t-you-find-something-new-to-insert-here idea hanging nakedly over the scene.
It’s raw and energetic and interesting, but clearly not for the Mrs. Grundys of the world. Ten Directions Production has relocated from New York to St. Louis, so we surely will see more of them.
Young Liars Theatre
Ten Directions Production