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Opinionist: Under the Radar 2010

Chekhov Lizardbrain, a marvelous psycho-vaudeville romp from the Philadelphia company Pig Iron, debuted in New York in 2008, but thanks to the Under the Radar festival it's back for a very limited engagement at the CSV Cultural Center on the Lower East Side. As difficult to describe as it is impossible to forget, the four-man show is a sort of subtle exploration of the compartmentalization of memory in response to trauma. Maybe that doesn't sound like much fun, but this inspired play is a delightful trip.The titular Chekhov Lizardbrain, played by the brilliant James Sugg, serves as the evening's emcee, narrating the events with anti-theatrical mumbling enriched and amplified by Nick Kourtides's exquisite sound design. Sugg also plays Lizardbrain's alter-ego Dimitri, and as the four act, 75 minute performance unfolds, some semblance of a Chekhovian story emerges, concerning Dimitri's attempt to purchase the ramshackle Oswego home of three childhood friends. Contrasting the dandified mannerisms of 19th century theater against contemporary Dockers naturalism, Chekhov Lizardbrain consistently defies expectations, packing more hilarious surprises in five minutes than most conventional shows have in an hour.At first slightly alienating, Pig Iron's nuanced and highly physical aesthetic quickly takes hold of the audience, cultivating its own interior logic, like laws of gravity on an another planet. Back on earth, it's hard to explain what the hell just happened, but this much is certain: Dimitri, a socially maladroit botanist, is being chased by his memories, and they "can smell fear." Beyond that, I can only report that each enthralling moment bubbles into the next with an idiosyncratic pulse of its own. You'd do well to check it. — Gothamist

Published Jan 10, 2010

Modified Jan 10, 2010

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Click on the images for reviews of three productions in this year's indispensable Under the Radar festival, which gathers genre-bending performers from around the world for a twelve day envelope-pushing extravaganza. It ends next Sunday, January 17th.