Writer/director Richard Foreman is a seminal force in modern American drama. Like many of our more experimental artists, he is woefully under-appreciated in the United States, while his reputation is strong elsewhere in the world. (The French government, for example, subsidized his theatre there from 1979 to 1985.)
Foreman is an original voice, with literary roots in the soil of European absurdism and with theatrical influences from vaudeville to commedia dell'arté. Beginning in 1968, when he founded his Ontological-Hysteric Theatre in New York, he has produced a significant body of work that has been performed around the world, often directed by Foreman himself.
Because Foreman's theatrical and visual style is so particular, it is hard for anyone who has seen a Foreman piece—often with Foreman in the front row literally directing the action—to imagine the work performed and directed by anyone else. Clearly much could be lost as it slips out of the grasp of the writer/director.
However, this production of Lava, which was first performed by Foreman and the Wooster Group in 1989, is a pleasant surprise. The company manages to capture many of the signature Foreman touches—the herky-jerky movements, the monotone speeches, the omniscient narrator, and the pounding use of acoustics—to good effect. It is true some of the crispness and vigor of a Foreman-directed piece is missing, but most of the writer's peculiar intention is not lost.
The play is essentially an essay, like much of Foreman's work. In this case the subject is the categories of our understanding of reality. While this may seem a terribly abstract subject for an evening, Foreman makes it an exciting emotional and intellectual journey. Director Al Sgro and his ensemble cast, which includes Kristen Brennan, David Edwards, Julie Gawkowski, Edgar Landa, Anthony Powell, Peter Westenhofer, and Lauren Ziemski, approach this journey with energy and care, and succeed to a great extent in the difficult task of bringing a Foreman piece to life without Richard Foreman.
The second piece in the evening, Samuel Beckett's one-minute conceptual piece, Breath, is virtually impossible to describe in a review without ruining the effect. All that can be safely revealed is that the concept is nicely executed by director Michael Nehring.
"Lava/Breath," presented by Son of Semele Ensemble at Theatre/Theater, 6425 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. Thurs.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. Aug. 23-Sept. 9. $15-20. (323) 860-9970.