East German experimental writer Heiner Muller, best known for his work with minimalist Robert Wilson, wrote ”Despoiled Shore,” ”Medeamaterial”
and ”Landscape with Argonauts” to be performed simultaneously.
The three plays combine an impassioned version of the Medea legend with Muller`s apocalyptic vision. The Chicago Actors Ensemble has elected not to attempt Muller`s suggestion but to perform parts of the three plays in a conventional linear fashion under the combined title ”Despoiled Shore Medeamaterial Landscape with Argonauts.”
While the troupe deserves praise for tackling Muller in the first place, their gambit doesn`t work. Partly because of the limitations of their budget and small, plain headquarters, they don`t provide an especially effective performance-art atmosphere, key to the theatricality of these pieces.
The overall feeling is more one of bad `60s surrealism than `80s avant-garde. The uninspired jumpsuit costumes are more silly than anything, and the effect of strobe lighting isn`t convincing evidence that this overworked relic should be brought back.
The dozen players manage a couple of moments: A coffin with a corpse covered with dime-store dolls is rolled out by pallbearers engaging in an amusing dance of death; and there`s a dreamy section in which an actress pantomimes in dim lighting behind a screen.
But Kit Carson and Mary Derbyshire`s reading of the Medea sections seems overwrought and strident. And the disconnected images of the piece never really add up to much: Medea amid a weird field of apocalyptic garbage, strewn onstage by space-age creatures.
Maybe the troupe should have taken Muller up on his suggestion. As it is, the piece just isn`t experimental enough.
`DESPOILED SHORE MEDEAMATERIAL LANDSCAPE WITH ARGONAUTS`
Dramas by Heiner Muller, directed by Rick Helweg, set by Karen McGann, costumes by Patti Hannon and masks by Chris Shanahan. At the Chicago Actors Ensemble, 941 W. Lawrence Ave. 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday. Length, 1 hour. Tickets $10. Phone 275-4463.
THE CAST
Kit Carson, Mary Derbyshire, Sarah Bradley, Karen Christopher, Joe Jahraus, Alexandra Main, Hilary Mac Austin, Lisa Nespeca, Eric Ronis, Christopher Shanahan, Scott Stockwell, Julie Walker and Stephen West.
