Chemcially Imbalanced Comedy’s Blog

By Anthony Ellison

Gao Xingjian’s The Other Shore
By Gao Xingjian

NobelPrize–winner Gao Xingjian’s The Other Shore tackles head-on the trials we face as we struggle past life’s sorrows and grapple our way toward nirvana. Or so declare the program notes. Hats off to the audience member who gleans any such straightforward authorial ambitions from the action that unfolds onstage. The Shore most folks will remember consists of an actor initiating largely obscure stage pictures (a woman thrashing on the floor and chanting “hands!” for example) that are eventually adopted by a chorus of black-clad onlookers.

READ THE REST OF THE ORIGINAL REVIEW HERE
— Christopher Shea TimeOut Chicago

In Christopher Shea’s review of The Other Shore, there is a playful sadness that provides a through line for his eye-level understanding of the The-a-ta. Right off the bat, we see how vulnerable and brave he can be immediately, recognizing the “head-on” “struggles” that the path to “nirvana” lays in front of us to “grapple” within reality. Have you ever had to wrestle nirvana? No. I doubt it. If you had, you would end up with a fiercely infinite case of Cauliflower ear, and a broken femur at the least. Chris came back unscathed, with a refined pallet for choreography.

My humble advice: Don’t try to wrestle Euphoria. Leave a man’s job to a man. Christopher Shea will live it, defeat it, and dance the night away in temperamental display of “sexual writhing”. And don’t expect to “cuddle”, or “inch” your way into his heart, cause he did his time watching “aimless” adults childishly attempting to invoke the storm of “gleaned authorial ambitions”. Cuddling is for WEAKLINGS! He’s a man who dances alone…for nirvana…for productions on a diet (rather than this “bloated” display of “hopping adults”). His message is simple: Quit yelling “HANDS!” and “thrashing”, if you can’t yell “HANDS!” and thrash at the same time. Christopher Shea has been through “Highfalutin Hell” and back, he can’t take it anymore.

Oh yeah. And I dare you to yell “HANDS!” at his face… No, I take that back. Don’t yell “HANDS!” at him. He might kill you.

Join us every Friday for this new satirical series by Sponsored Troupe Member Anthony Ellison. You can see Anthony perform with Counter Productive Lover in our Comedy Showcase. Check www.cicomedy.com for listings

This entry was posted on Friday, February 27th, 2009 at 6:00 am and is filed under Bad Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.