In “The Bar,” a scene without dialogue, Yuki Kawahisa, Essence Lotus, Tatyana Kot, and Frankie Placidi dance until they turn on each other and only one person is left standing.
If you missed the avant-garde theater scene in New York City during the 1960s and ’70s, The Kick Inside serves as a time capsule, catapulting its audiences back to the heyday of experimental theater. Directed with a steady hand by Nicolás Noreña, this collection of 12 vignettes by a range of playwrights, from Richard Foreman to Penny Arcade, takes its viewers on a madcap linguistic, visual, and physical journey to that era, with an occasional modern touch to the retro material.
Alenka (played by the radiant Tatyana Kot) is the sole thread connecting each scene. Every vignette reveals a different facet of her character: a fragile damsel in distress, a ruthless femme fatale, a tough talking Brooklyn girl, a dreamer, and a cynic.
A Secret Service agent (Benjamin Forster) and Jeannie, the “tech witch” (Kawahisa), are in search of Alenka, who poses as a waitress but eludes them in her disguise.
The production opens with “The Cinema.” Alenka sits in the middle row surrounded by an archetypal cast of characters, including a rude backpacker, an absent-minded businessman, and a woman taking selfies as the movie ends. When the lights come up, Alenka sits weeping while a cleaner sweeps around her. As the Kate Bush song, ‘Moving,” finishes, Alenka exits, setting the disjointed tone for the rest of the play.
In Jess Barbagallo’s “The Apartment, I” Alenka talks to her room, and the room—voiced by Alenka Kraigher—answers back. But Alenka isn't alone in this surreal world: Man (Timothy Scott), who may or may not be her lover, also talks to the walls and hears them respond.
When Alenka drops off clothing in Dhari Noel’s “The Dry Cleaner,” Angel (Essence Lotus, who skillfully delivers his lines around a lollipop) notices black streaks on her garments and wonders if she’s been abducted:
Angel: Just don’t get abducted by aliens like the other girls with black stains.
Alenka: You know things I don’t know?
From there, the vignettes veer into conspiracy-laden territory. A particularly funny scene, “The Diner,” by Penny Arcade, features two Secret Service agents (Benjamin Forster and Lotus) who sip an enormous papier-mâché milkshake. Alenka poses as a waitress with a ridiculously over-the-top Brooklyn accent. When Jeannie, the “tech witch” (Yuki Kawahisa, who plays a wide range of eccentric characters in wonderfully wacky costumes), enters the booth with her laptop, she professes that her mission is to help humans control themselves:
Jeannie: Our effort is to make them think technology is progress so that they become more and more isolated, enslaved to their own ideas of power and diminishing spatial abilities, and less capable of spreading their sick violence, greed, and destruction to other corners of the galaxy. Are you with us?
Alenka: Jeez, foxy, I don’t know who you are, what you’re saying, or who you think I am. But you either order something—even a coffee—or get the hell out of here.
Alenka (Kot) and a clerk (Lotus) at a dry cleaners flirt and talk about possible alien abductions in The Kick Inside. Photographs by Jose Miranda.
Normandy Sherwood’s set and costume designs take on a life of their own. Some sets feature muted, muddy tones, while others pop with vibrant fluorescents. Daisy Long’s complementary lighting accentuates these colors by deepening or muting them as needed. A recurring feature is a large cloth created by Sherwood that hangs in front of the stage, serving as a frame to limit the audience's view of the action, like a painter framing their subject. In tandem with it, Robin Margolis’s sound design provides concrete everyday noises—footsteps, slamming doors—that anchor the abstract dialogue and staging.
Sherwood’s inventive use of drapes shines again in “Over the Moon,” which features a floor-to-ceiling curtain painted with planets and stars. Cut-out sections allow the characters—Frankie, Baba (Forster), and the Tech Witch (Kawahisa)—to poke their heads and legs through while standing on a hidden platform, giving the illusion that they are floating in space. Other vignettes, such as John Jesurun’s “Bus Stop,” continue to explore these extraterrestrial and conspiracy themes.
Forster, Kawahisa, Lotus, Placidi, Scott, and Felix Teich effortlessly inhabit a wide array of characters. Though the script gives them little dramatic structure to hold on to, they bring complete commitment to every scene.
Ultimately, The Kick Inside is structured less like a traditional play and more like an Exquisite Corpse—the Dadaist technique where artists create individual sections without seeing what came before or knowing what comes next. The whole is not simply the sum of its parts. Instead, it is best to sit back and enjoy the ride without expectations; whatever sense it makes is entirely up to you.
The Kick Inside plays through Nov. 7 at HERE Arts Center (145 Sixth Ave). Evening performances are Tuesday through Saturday at 8:30 p.m. with additional shows on Oct. 30 and Nov. 5 at 5 p.m. For tickets and information, visit here.org/shows/the-kick-inside.
Text: Penny Arcade, Jess Barbagallo, Ethan Fishbane, Richard Foreman*, Hillary Gao, Nazareth Hassan, John Jesurun, Marvin Just, Dhari Noel, Normandy Sherwood, Hayley Stahl & Fiona Templeton
Director: Nicolás Noreña
Scenic & Costume Design: Normandy Sherwood
Lighting Designer: Daisy Long
Sound Designer: Robin Margolis
*Richard Foreman’s text is used with permission of the Richard Foreman Literary Trust.If you enjoyed this review, please click on the Like icon below.
