If
Quentin Tarantino made a play, 3! would be it. Based on Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 1979 film The Third Generation, and playing as part of the undergroundzero festival at P.S. 122, the play is a harsh,
surrealist trip into a world of fear, terrorism and spies. Director
Doris Mirescu does well to stick to the chaotic, tense plot of the
German movie, though he uses multimedia to add action to 3!. The play starts when you get in the door and are greeted with different “scenes,” where people sit, slowly put on make-up, get dressed or type on a computer. Around the floor, there are cameramen and boom operators walking about, getting in the way and projecting bits of the stage on large screens and televisions in the back. This is the first time you get a glimpse to the depth of space used, from the bathroom to the dressing room.
Once the play truly begins, don’t expect to follow it along smoothly. Lots of screaming, yelling, stomping and gunshots occur to pull you out of any deep thought you were trying to have about why the boss is touching his secretary, who that old lady is, and why that man is banging on the table. Actually, the whole play is confusing on so many levels, and Mirescu’s use of video and sound add to that madness, albeit in a good way. She employs the music as a tool to bring out insanity and uses the film to highlight scenarios and objects. Also, by having the camera and boom operators in the play, you sort of get and idea of who you should watch and at what time.
Plots slowly unfold, characters get interchanged and relationships blossom, but, of the dozen or so people in the play, the only characters you can actually place are: Ilse (Kate McConaghy) the drug addict, Hilde (Jennifer Balir-Bianco) who keeps throwing up, Petra (Zehra Tas) because she foreign and wears crazy wigs, Paul (Anthony Laforgia) because he is an asshole, and the skirt wearing cross-dresser August (Florin Penisoara). All the actors played their parts well--when you can determine who's who and the point of their dramatics. Even though we get many angles on the action, I still am not 100 percent sure what happened.
Yet, I enjoyed the presentation as a whole. Powerful images played out on this cramped, prop filled stage, and real emotion came through in the actors’ performances. The rape of Hilde proved especially difficult to watch, and, if you have a hard time with that, I suggest not sitting in the front row--you just may try to help her. Never before have I seen so many costume changes in such little time, but then again, nothing in 3! proved normal or expected. In the end, I couldn’t put my finger on the point of the story, but the execution left me feeling like I had awoken from a bad dream filled with light, sex and lasting images.
July 24 at 9, July 23 and 25 at 7, and July 26 at 5; PS 122, 150 1st Ave. (at E. 9th St.), 212-477-5829; $15
