The back room at
Telephone Bar and Grill, on lower Second Avenue, is
long and very narrow. A play of mine was read there once, partly due to
affordability, partly because the play needed a boatload of actors and
the room’s claustrophobic vibe—like the walls are closing in—inspired
me. The downstairs space at the Flea Theater has a similar vibe.
Shallow as a Valley girl, broad as burlesque, the best plays there are
those that confront you directly, ignoring any pretense of fourth walls
or the distance spittle can fly. Artistic director Jim Simpson’s
production of Peter Handke’s
Offending the Audience has just that kind
of swagger.
Handke, who is Austrian and an enfant terrible among post-World War II
literary lions, wrote the play in 1966. On paper, the piece seems
inescapably ’60s: There are no characters, no action and zero
production values beyond a simple black curtain pulled aside to start
the play. Virtually the entire text consists of statements asserting
everything the play is not. Imagine each of these sentences spoken to
you by a different actor:
“There are no intervals here. The intervals between words lack
significance. Here the unspoken word lacks significance. There are no
unspoken words here. Our silences say nothing. There is no deafening
silence. There is no silent silence. There is no deathly quiet. Speech
is not used to create silence here. This play includes no direction
telling us to be silent.”
The actors are the Bats, the Flea’s young, fearless 21-actor resident company...
Through Feb. 23. The Flea Theater, 41 White St. (betw. Church St. & Broadway), 212-226-2407; $10.
Read full "Bat Offend" here.
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