Les Sublimes
1/2 star
The Eisenhower Theatre at The Kennedy Center the show closed Feb. 21
The Kennedy Center, as part of a special two-month "Festival of France," presents the American debut of "Les Sublimes" by Compagnie Hendrick van der Zee. With Guy Alloucherie as the artistic director, and person whose life the narrative is based on, this French production unintentionally raises an important question: How experimental can a show get before it no longer is art? After enduring "Les Sublimes," the answer to that question is quite a lot.
"Les Sublimes" advertises their multimedia performance as a fusion of dance, drama, video, poetry, acrobatics and circus art. Collaborating with his artistic collective of actors, dancers, trapezes and circus entertainers, Alloucherie creates a framework of life's journey for the performers and audience to follow. The characters represent the hazards of a life, becoming the heroes and anti-heroes of their own existence.
In "Les Sublimes," Alloucherie tells of his own story, the tale of a miner's son who became a theatre director. It is of his childhood, departure and return to the mining area with the installation of his company in the Fabrique Theatrale - an old pit top converted into a performing arts creativity center. "Les Sublimes," however, does not just tell one story, but a thousand tales emerge from fragments including a succession of speech, acrobatics and dance in the form of sequence shots. This work is far removed from any narrative logic.
The description of the play may sound confusing: Onstage, a woman dressed in a skimpy white outfit walks on stage and rolls around on the dirt until she decides to walk up to the microphone and breathe heavily into it. While this woman is preoccupied with her very challenging task, other actors slowly walk on stage and act as weirdly as they can, given the props and scenery they have to use. Many of them start randomly pouring bowls of red liquid over their white, minimalist attire.
Before long, another man sits down at the side of the stage and spews into the microphone offensive religious and political rhetoric, which the other actors seem to ignore. All the while poetry is recited and short clips of people waiting at a bus stop are shown on an overhead projector. Once the audience's patience is worn thin, which doesn't take much time, Alloucherie walks on stage and briefly discusses what his life was like growing up in a coal mining town. When he is done, he walks off stage and the actors go through the same shenanigans all over again. This production goes on for an agonizing 85 minutes without intermission.
Experimentation is important if a greater understanding of art and culture is to be explored and understood. "Les Sublimes," however, is a gross waste of time with no intrinsic value whatsoever. This production isn't just bad experimental theater, it is the attempt of a man who has been unfortunate in life trying to get back at the world with his stupid, unintelligible play that steals time away from other people's lives.
Much avant-garde theater walks the fine line between creativity and self-indulgence. "Les Sublimes" makes no secret that it is purely egotistical money-wasting fare. The Kennedy Center usually sponsors shows with some sort of artistic, entertainment or intellectual appeal. This has none of the three. Even if you have a vested interest in bizarre or multimedia performance, this is one show you will be happy you missed.
