Audio By Carbonatix
Thirty years ago, Richard Schechner created the Performance Group in New York, an avant-garde company whose shows were riveting because of their carefully rehearsed spontaneity. What was important in Schechner’s productions was the unpredictable series of events that took place between actor and audience, and the art form he created came to be known as “environmental theater.”
Of course, that was during the Sixties, when relating to one another was of paramount importance and the boiling-over of social issues compelled artists such as Schechner to break free of script-bound forms of expression. Many of Schechner’s performances became famous because he took risks that other directors considered outrageous; if he staged some of his plays in their original form today, he’d probably lose any chance of securing federal funding.
The environmental theater craze has since been phased out in favor of interactive theater, a supposedly “user-friendly” experience that’s more fun than being screamed at by a bunch of hippies. What’s more, interactive performances do better at the box office than their environmental cousins ever did.
Which is precisely why the Denver-based Theatre Group has chosen to produce Tony and Tina’s Wedding, an interactive theater piece that features a wedding, a dance and a buffet dinner–all for the $35 admission price (Schechner’s group used to charge you a couple of bucks and, say, 39 cents, just to irritate you from the get-go). Tony and Tina has been playing to sold-out audiences in New York for ten years and has enjoyed lengthy runs elsewhere around the country, and the local company has seized its chance to offer Denver audiences a novel form of entertainment while reaping a financial windfall.
During a recent performance at the Adam’s Mark Hotel (a venue chosen so that liquor could be served during the show), a packed house greeted each character’s entrance with laughs and giggles in anticipation of what would follow. Unfortunately, things went downhill from there and kept getting worse for three full hours until the company finally gave up and pulled the plug on the show (but not before substantial numbers of audience members had walked out).
Much of what took place in the large banquet hall either was inaudible to most people or couldn’t be seen by spectators at the far reaches of the seating area. Those episodes that were given the benefit of a microphone were uniformly wretched, either because of their content (mundane, at best) or their volume (painfully loud, at worst).
The show would likely benefit from being staged in a more intimate atmosphere, where patrons could mingle with the actors instead of being confronted, table by table, by this or that unruly character. Because the performers overcompensated to adjust to the cavernous space, the vast majority of audience members were reluctant to interact with the boisterous crew, choosing instead to observe their antics from afar.
That situation would have caused Schechner’s actors to turn their performance garage upside down in an attempt to win back their audience. In the case of the Theatre Group, its members seem to be laughing all the way to the bank.
–Lillie
Tony and Tina’s Wedding, a Theatre Group presentation in an open-ended run at the Adam’s Mark Hotel, 1550 Court Place, 860-9360.
