Most Popular
-
Vivid-Alt's Vin Vericose transforms from Minnesota boy to porn star Chad Fjerstad and his pornstar girlfriend move to L.A. to make it in the skin trade
-
Paul Thissen is statehouse's smartest, but is he ready to be governor? The well-liked brainiac is quickly turning from race's darkhorse to its thoroughbred
-
A night with Galactic Pizza's Justice League delivery squad Where crotch-grabs and pot tips are just part of the job
-
Brett Rogers vs. Fedor Emelianenko: The Baddest Man on the Planet Heavyweight Strikeforce fight to air live on CBS Saturday
-
TCF Bank Stadium built with U of M students' overdraft fees Gophers get state-of-the-art arena, but at what price?
Recent Blog Posts
Best Sarah Palin Tribute Ever!
Fri Sep 19, 3:30 PM
Gimme News Weekly Wrap-Up: Nov. 2-6
Fri Nov 6, 3:11 PM
Live: Brett Rogers vs. Fedor Emelianenko
Sat Nov 7, 5:06 PM
Sneak Peek: Anchor Fish & Chips
Sat Nov 7, 11:39 AM
No More Kings
Thu Oct 30, 7:37 PM
Hudson Wants You To Answer The Calling
Fri Nov 6, 4:40 PM
National Features >
Village Voice
The Great Walls of Chinatown
With the exception of the electric rice cookers, this Bowery tenement could have come straight from the Nineteenth Century.
By Elizabeth Dwoskin
Houston Press
Getting Off
DUI attorney Tyler Flood wins 80 percent of his trials--even if his clients were 100 percent drunk.
By Mike Giglio
Miami New Times
Park or Die Tryin'
From the homeless parking mafia to the meter fairy, finding a spot in Miami has taken a turn toward the surreal.
By Gus Garcia-Roberts
A Gift for Planet BX63
Share
By Quinton Skinner
Published on October 30, 2007 at 3:44pm
-
Ashley Thimm
It's lonely out in space, as Bernie Taupin once noted, and in the intergalactic fairy tale A Gift for Planet BX63, a young girl (Jennifer Ilse) pines for some sense of fulfillment on her lonely planet. The scene is set by the Universe (Elena Gianetti), who lays out a story of isolation in rhyming couplets. Writer (and former City Pages theater critic) Max Sparber lays out a lyrical tone from the outset, and when Ilse begins gathering stardust from a meteor to craft shining crystals, we wade directly into allegorical territory. Ilse performs her own choreography inside an open wooden box, executing athletic handstands that lend both a sense of yearning and a nifty simulation of zero gravity. Lest things become too weighted with symbolism, though, we're soon treated to the arrival of a Salesman (Paul Herwig). Herwig lays down a clattering walkway from his offstage spaceship, and arrives in a garish suit with a big box of wares (he also indulges some goofy clowning, as his character tries to adjust to a change in gravity and calibrate what is presumably his universal translator doohickey). Sparber's rhymes take a turn for the Seussian when the Salesman begins hawking his exotic product line, but Ilse's character has eyes only for a little flower in a pot. In due course, she begins exchanging the beautiful things she has made for plant food, and the Salesman locks the girl into the slippery slope of consumer addiction—in one of her only lines of the night, Ilse stares into the distance and pleads, "More!" It's no great surprise where things go from here, but Herwig's scenic design (a low-budget mini solar system here, stacks of crap plant food there) combines winningly with Ilse's movement and Sparber's silliness to create a work of genuine heartache. And lest one walk out on a bummer, there's a nice visual note at the end to suggest that all is not necessarily lost. At just under an hour, it's tempting to regard this show as a trifle, but surrendering to its skewed charms feels like a pleasant daydream that hints at something important on the fuzzy periphery of consciousness.
Off-Leash Area; at Our Garage through November 10 612.724.7372
Now Click This
