Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Putting the THE back in the theaterTHE

It began with a staredown from a rounded man, dressed as a valet, reminiscent of Erich von Stroheim in Sunset Boulevard. He was smoking. A cigarette. And wearing white gloves. Others entered. Marching. Like robots or wackedout marionettes. A coquettish maid. A priest. A coupla lab technicians with bowties. A pale, mustachioed man in dovegray morningcoat... they arranged themselves around their instruments, struck a note, and then, suddenly, within moments, we were IN THEIR WORLD, a raucous, musical, theatrical, filmic immersion in what they themselves call "A concert in human ridiculousness."

The "they" is The RenaldoThe Ensemble. The Renaldo is Aldo Perez, a brilliant postmodern Renaissance dynamo who combines musical virtuosity, philosophy, clowning, and formal theater training with subversive, lusting, burlesque funniness. The Ensemble is a company of like-minded fellow travelers, modernday inheritors of the exquisite Commedia del Arte prerequisites of discipline, blasphemy, and zaniness. Oh, and did I mention TALENT? This is the real deal.

While their characters are all recognizable as Commedia archetypes, silent screen icons and/or characters from Clue, the mystery board game, their approach is intoxicating -- old-fashioned but retooled to reflect a contemporary sensibility for today's media saturated, multi-tasking, fast-paced, image-driven, TV-educated audience. But it's not ironic, or caustic, or jaded, or arrogant. They somehow find a place in the universe's timeline that pulls together the past with the now -- somehow, you feel you've seen and heard all this before and yet it seems radically new. A little unsettling. And very, very funny.

The website: Theaterthe.com and a Youtube site offer glimpses of other pieces, The Curse of the Mystic Renaldo The, and American Hallucinations, and gives a hint of how the group merges media with their live aesthetic. They incorporate original film that looks like a direct appropriation of movies from the past; self-accompany their own act with music derived from hard rock, punk, Sinatra crooning, opera (Jenny Lee Mitchell is an opera-trained, non-diva, clarinet playing, beauty), and junkshop jazz; and engage in the kind of masterful comic play that makes it all seem wonderfully arbitrary and spontaneous. There's also a list of musical instruments including: guitar, piano, tuba, flutes, deer grunter, toys, washboard, bicycle bell, harmonica...and nose flute.

The Renaldo The Ensemble is performing in NYC February 7th at The Living Room and February 13th at The Rockwood Music Hall.

Go Have the Experience THE!

Kudos to 3-Legged Dog (aka 3LD Art and Technology Center), brainchild of Kevin Cunningham, for giving this talented group a creative home.

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