“To make art in an insane world is the only way to be alive.”
Chris,
By the time you get to these climactic words at the end of your show, you’ve managed to deftly bring the audience along to this point of view. This performance, which I think will appeal to anyone with artistic ambitions (or anyone who supports and appreciates the struggle of those who do), highlights the absurdity both of trying to make art in a capitalist society AND the wonderful absurdity of good independent theater. As a fellow Fringe performer, I could easily relate to hearing you talk about the paucity of funding and the humiliation of having strangers ask you to “sell me your show.” On the other hand, you taught me SO MUCH I didn’t know about the local performing landscape, from a show at the Naval Yard where the smell of horse poop was piped through the AC to the person who sang in front of the long-gone Barnes and Noble in Rittenhouse Square. I wasn’t expecting a bit of a history lesson, yet in your skilled hands, I didn’t mind. (I also immediately Googled “Geoff Sobelle” as soon as I got home.)
Your mode is frantic, yet not overwhelming. It wasn’t in-your-face, the kind of show where the audience feels a need to shield themselves from the over-eager actor’s deafeningly strident exhortations. Rather, your energy made the material feel urgent. The show mixes stories of your childhood – youthful theater ambitions, thwarted romantic ambitions, and tales of childhood bullying- with your experiences in the world of Philadelphia theater, and in the way good art does, this very personal and idiosyncratic experience becomes wonderfully universal. So many of us have artistic dreams and hopes, and only the lucky few ever find themselves totally fulfilled.
The show itself is a sort of play within a play, and I loved seeing you perform multiple times a delightfully silly dance routine from this theoretical show. Similarly, the title itself takes on several meanings, from the character Chris Davis’ desire to be presented, to the audience being presented with this show, to the fact at the end you lovingly declare of art, “It’s a present. It’s not a choice. It’s a big ass gift.” The show is a celebration of art for art’s sake, of the simple importance of creating just for the sake of creation, because you have something burning within. And the ability to take this powerful lesson and make it entertaining? Well, what a gift it is for the audience to receive that, and what talent it took for you to make it happen. So happy I caught this.
Now I gotta go see One-Man Nutcracker this winter…
-Noam
Chris Davis’ The Presented and Noam Osband’s Circumscribed both have closing perfomances tonight (Sunday Sept 28th) at Studio 34- Circumscribed at 7 pm, The Presented at 8:30.
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