Theater – Page 6 – Diversions LA

Bombay Beach Biennale: Sweet and Surreal

Posted on March 28, 2018 by Diversions LA

The Bombay Beach Biennale is an art festival that doesn’t so much take over the small town of Bombay Beach as it does grow from it, a series of art works, performances, and installations that is both sweet and surreal.

Above photo by Nicole Saari

Let’s start with the town. It’s a small community nestled against the shores of the Salton Sea. Just as the sea itself has been shrinking from lack of water, so has the town been shrinking; with its neat pre-fab homes and small cottages sharing street space with abandoned, broken properties. There is one bar, the Ski Inn, with dollar-bill-covered walls, burgers and fries, and generous drinks; a small convenience store; and an American Legion Post. And the wind swept, dusty, fish-bone sand of the sea.

Above photo by Nicole Saari

The sea itself is like an art installation. It wasn’t put there by nature, but by an accidental flood. It’s brilliant waters – smelly in the summer months from agricultural run-off – reflect the harshly beautiful desert landscape, the more distant mountains, the sky and clouds. It is a mirror of nature, an anomaly of nature, beauty that is being let to die. The sea needs water.

And yet. There is life in the sea and in the town yet. And the art festival plays upon that life, helping to revive, drawing attention to the plight of the sea, the not-quite-forgotten town, and the wonder and awe of something magnificent yet out of place.

That is what the sea itself is, of course, but it is also the Bombay Beach Biennale. Who put a cool art show in such a remote spot? Who limited attendance to 500 so as not to overwhelm the town or its limited services? Who decided what seemingly random collection of exhibitions, lectures, dance, and music fit together?

The BBB rotates dates each year, but functions as an annual version of a true Biennale, a gypsy-caravan, a mini-Burning Man, an outsider art fest, a tribute to the land, its strangeness, its beauty.

Above, Ashkenazy, left; Haberny, right

The Bombay Beach Biennale, which started late on a March Friday this year and ran to 1 p.m. on Sunday, was once a wild dream. Now, it’s an immersive art experience founded by experiential artist and Petit Ermitage Hotel co-owner Stefan Ashkenazy along with Tao Ruspoli, and Lily Johnson White. Underground New York-based artist Greg Haberny first created and exhibited here at an abandoned property that he turned into The Hermitage Museum in Bombay Beach, and has lived off and on here for the last two years.

“The project in Bombay Beach is highly euphoric, and very supportive to the needs of the area,” Haberny says, noting that the region around the sea is already home to the art community of East Jesus in nearby Slab City, and the folk art masterpiece of Salvation Mountain.

And Ashkenazy adds that he knew Bombay Beach was the right place for his event “the moment I set foot there. The idea came to me to convert it, using it as a canvas, and turning the town into an immersive installation of Gonzo art.”

In other words: strange and beautiful art to match a strange and beautiful place. And somehow merge with it, so that it was not so much a taking over of the town but a revelatory look at another dimension of it.

Here are a few highlights for me:

Olivia Steele’s simply awe-inspiring ruby red neon sculpture, suspended on posts in the sea and connected with a generator. “Save Me” — meaning both the sea, the town, and every viewer in need of saving which is every one of us, of course. Likewise, her “Trust the Process” a work in purple inside a shell of a house in Bombay Beach Estates, the most derelict section of town, hits the heart as well as the eye.

Above night photo by Sarah DeRemer

Also on the beach: The Tesseract, a small-house sized representation of a 4 dimensional hypercube by S. Shigley aka Shig, with glowing, other-worldly lighting design by Jessica Steiner and Ashley Hillis.

Above photo by Anya Kaats

The Bombay Beach Opera House – A dilapidated house that has been transformed into a permanent structure, a state-of-the-art performing arts space masterminded by artist James Ostrer housed a variety of performances. The theater walls are covered with flip flops abandoned by refugees, many from Nigeria. Surrealist paintings are hung as a backdrop against the sky blue/aqua painted stage.

Saturday evening, San Francisco Ballet prima ballerina Maria Kotchekova and her partner Sebastian Kloberg were followed by a Clown Opera by Kate Feld.

Above photo, Sarah DeRemer

Greg Haberny’s Hermitage Museum, offered a new exhibition Why Do I Destroy Everything I Love? featuring works by Haberny and artists Camille Schefter, Thomas Linder, Jon Pylypchuk, Bill Saylor, and Theodore Boyer. The Museum, like the opera house, is a permanent gift to the town. Tours are available upon request – post-festival, visitors can ask Steve at the Ski Inn. Giant cloth sculptures of cigarettes; twigs suspended from the ceiling painted to resemble cigarettes, terrific assemblage works throughout the museum and patio.

Above photo by Nicole Saari

Another permanent installation is the Bombay Beach Drive-In, a wonderful conceit featuring car shells and other vehicles parked before an outdoor screen. For the festival, screenings were of films dedicated to the theme of Sea of Love: Monsters in the Water. The glittery drive-in sign, fires in big iron drum trash cans made a pretty terrific scene after dark.

The Bombay Beach Institute of Particle Physics, Metaphysics & International Relations is part museum/gallery, part performance space and home to a new Community Garden. Here, we visited a gallery with ghostly images, enjoyed statues such as the Venus of Salton in the garden, and listened to a pretty cool lecture – and lectures aren’t my thing – about God, music, and silence by Oxford University philosopher Mark Wrathall, Columbia University professor and activist Christia Mercer, and author Christopher Ryan among others.

Possibly my favorite off-the-beach installation was Angler Grove, a silver and mirrored disco/bachelor pad created by artist Randy Polumbo. So shiny. From the glittering foam steps to the silvery sink-in couches, this was a wonderful, alien planet. Hoping that this, too, is a permanent structure – the detail was incredible.

Above photo by Amanda Vandenberg

There were a wide range of individual pieces that stood out: “Nine” at the Bombay Beach Botanical Gardens, a giant porcelain flower by artist Yassi Mazandi; Jennifer Korsen’s giant hearts and gold-painted cracks in her “Home is Where the Heart Is” installation, the exotic coffee bar of Cafe Bosna, Sean Guerrero’s haunting skeletal “Death Ship” on the sand, light sculptures dancing in the wind along Ave. E; a street parade; the final event of the festival on Sunday, a dance party surrounded by wonderful wooden cut outs that highlighted the desolation and wonder of the sea, and yes, again, its surrealism.

Photo above by Tao Ruspoli

Photo above by Sarah DeRemer

Can you go next year? Maybe you can, if you look closely and follow us here at DiversionsLA. And – if most importantly of all, you look to the sea, consider joining a fight for its survival, and think of art as your weapon, your shield, and perhaps even your savior.

Next up, a first person account of the event by a photographer and musician who has loved the Salton Sea for years and written music inspired by it.

Genie Davis; photos: Genie Davis, additional photos individually credited

4Play: Sex in a Series at Actors Company

Posted on March 5, 2018 by Diversions LA

Through March 17th at the Actors Company in West Hollywood, the immersive experience of 4Play: Sex in a Series is not to be missed.

This bittersweet comedy/drama traces the relationship ups and downs of three couples: two gay men struggling to say the word “love;” two lesbian women, one of whom has just “discovered” she likes women, and has now fallen in love; and one heterosexual couple – the male half of which is casting and producing and performing a play, whose lines we see rewritten, and whose production performance also in seen. Into this lively mix on stage we have a note-taking assistant director/narrator; a vibrant musical performance, and the arrival of an all-too-knowing kid-sister.

Stage is loosely said: we were excited to see the concept, which premiered on Valentine’s Day, took place on the primarily imagined set, on a series of riders and on the main floor among the audience members. A series of tables and stools are set up in the center of the room, which doubles as bar and disco and restaurant for the performers as well as seating for the audience; other audience seating is set up on benches along one wall. It’s exciting to be so intimately involved in the production – and the characters’ lives. During a climactic dinner party, hors d’oeuvres and drinks were handed to members of the audience.

In short, this is truly theater as experience; but in no way does that experiential nature diminish the sharpness of writing, performance, and direction.

The acting is terrific, featuring Ariana Anderson, Graham Brown, Bevin Bru, Eve Danzeisen, Zoe Simpson Dean, Marian Frizelle, Dustyn Gulledge, Lara Helena, Kailin Large, Zoquera Milburn, Cameron J. Oro, Christi Pedigo, Krisin Racicot, Kelsey Risher, Robert Walters, and Dan Wilson. Presented by the new York theater ensemble trip, the play had hit runs in NYC and in Chicago before coming here. The smart, savvy, funny, and perfectly paced, edgy dialog was written by Graham Brown (who also directs) with Nathan Faudree and Lisa Roth.

Touching, heartfelt, and exuberant, this is the story of love in the city, with sex just the excuse love needs to get under your skin.

4PLAY: SEX IN A SERIES at The Actor’s Company located at 916 A North Formosa Avenue in Los Angeles; performances run Thursdays and Saturdays. For reservations, call (800) 838-3006 or visit http://www.theactorscompanyla.com/

Two Hander for the Ages: Freud’s Last Session at the Odyssey

Posted on February 20, 2018 by Diversions LA

Through March 4th at the Odyssey Theatre, Mark St. Germain’s two- character play, Freud’s Last Session sets two iconic figures side by side. And once so positioned, they debate, spar, agree, disagree, and passionately digress in a strong acting tour de force.

Martin Rayner as Sigmund Freud and Martyn Stanbridge as C.S. Lewis both convey their characters needs, wants, desires, and beliefs, bringing to life a profound 90 minutes of dialog that takes place on the day that England enters World War II.

Set in Freud’s convivial study, Lewis is a guest, invited to debate the existence of God with Freud. Just who has the more twisty and tenacious psychological profile, or the more defiant view of life, death, and war is the shifting point of the dialogue.

Rayner’s Freud is charming and witty, and a touch explosive. But then who wouldn’t be, contemplating suicide as a way to escape the ravages of oral cancer. Stanbridge’s Lewis is more even keel, but falls into a rhythm of sparring with Freud, enjoying the music of language as much as the arguments themselves may frustrate him.

The central crux of their disagreements arise around Lewis’ recent conversion to the Anglican faith, while Freud, as the father of psychoanalysis, is adamant that such a conversion is foolishness and blissfully unaware of his own psychological foibles. The debate is interrupted by radio announcements and music, the threat of German bombs, an off-stage barking dog, and the death-rattle coughs of Freud.

Mostly they talk, and under lesser hands the dialogue might lag. With Rayner and Stanbridge, however, there is so much life and vibrance to the performances – they simply embody their characters and make them into people we want to meet and get to know – that we’re compelled to listen and keep doing so.

Tense and insightful, no matters debated here are resolved neatly; rather the human condition, and a very human stubborn adherence to ones beliefs, are the meaty heart of this two-man play.

The Odyssey is located at 2055 S Sepulveda Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025. For more information visit www.odysseytheatre.com or call (310) 477-2055

The Merchant of Venice at Theatricum Botanicum: Timely Truths

Posted on September 19, 2017September 19, 2017 by Diversions LA

Take a beautiful outdoor setting, terrific acting, and a comedy/drama by William Shakespeare, and what do you have? A late season treat at Theatricum Botanicum with the artfully staged, politically potent The Merchant of Venice.

The theater itself is always an experience, and it fits the play perfectly here, the outdoor setting perhaps not that dissimilar to theaters of Shakespeare’s time. Certainly viewing a stellar performance such as this in such an intimate and outdoor setting enhances the play’s power.

It’s worth noting that in this political climate, the topic of anti-semitism, a key element of the play, is certainly worth examining. If Shakespeare did so with an unflinching eye then so can we.

With intensely quotable lines, and enough twists and turns to be a telenovela, The Merchant of Venice may be most memorable for the controversy it continues to stir in its characterization of Shylock, the Jewish money lender.

Alan Blumenfeld makes a compelling Shylock, one whose demand for a pound of flesh from a defaulting merchant debtor is grounded in his own desire for vengeance, retaliation at least in part for the prejudice and humiliation he experiences from Christians. An added opening scene actually reveals Shylock being mocked by others in the community, creating a nice little backstory to his reprehensible demand for payment in the flesh. In short, Blumenfeld makes Shylock as sympathetic as possible, particularly in regard to his poignant relationship to his daughter.

So where’s the comedy mined from? Besides the clown Launcelot, there’s a musical addition to this production in a riff on the discouragement of unwanted would-be suitors, and of course, artfully woven in the dialog are a variety of pithy Shakespearean comebacks. But this is a dark comedy indeed, particularly when one considers the role of Portia, played here by Willow Geer. Disguised as a lawyer, she succeeds in getting the debtor merchant off the hook, but she also utterly humiliates Shylock, taking away his property and very identity.

With Shakespeare himself unable to comment, there is no way to determine if the anti-semitism depicted were something he agreed with or denounced. But perhaps that begs the question – is the play timely? Does it still present a raw truth, however we wish to ignore it? Is the pound of flesh to be exacted justifiable in the face of continued abuse? Just the fact that these questions come up make the play itself one valuable viewing experience these days. And an entertaining one.

Take in the production through October 1^st in the perfect sylvan setting of the Botanicum.

Genie Davis; photos provided by the theater

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Kate Kelton April 19, 2025 at 11:43 am on Artist Kate Kelton Survives, Thrives, and Makes ArtI love you so much Genie, this is so so beautiful and so so kind, I cannot thank you enough for these touching and effusive...
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