Photo Source: Jay Ryan
We catch up with Lily, Rachel, Bob, and Richard in between climate conferences, which seem to occur only in exotic international locales. As the four activists meet one last time before jet-setting off to Spain, they have serious matters to discuss: namely, what image should they use as the cover slide for their PowerPoint presentation? The dead forest? It's been done. The melting iceberg? Yawn. More important, will they be able to take in a bullfight while they are there? Bob will have to look into that.
Throughout, Donovan and Calderón maintain a precarious balance between authentic bureaucratic nonsense, like when the group practices dire sound bytes for the press, and downright nutty conduct, such as Bob's ravenous devouring of a nice salad. Calderón, who plays the usually reserved Bob, performs this feat without utensils and while on all fours. Donovan and Calderón's able bursts of aerobic dance are likewise enjoyable in a nonsensical sort of way.
Paige Collette makes a spectacularly bizarre entrance as Lily, wiping away a chipper dry-erase-board note from the interns and then using her earrings to clip damp sheets of paper to an oscillating fan. As Rachel, Hannah Heller gives an agreeably twitchy account of a piranha attack. And the revelation that Donovan's anxious Richard and his wife will need separate hotel rooms in Spain at first seems like a surprising piece of character development but of course turns out to be just another example of the group's wasteful behavior.
Presented by Incubator Arts Project at St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery, 131 E. 10th St. NYC. Nov. 10–19. Tue., Thu.–Sun., 8 p.m. (212)-352-3101, (866) 811-4111, or www.incubatorarts.org.
