This Moment, This Place, Now

Abbie Fest Day Three...

We had a Sunday afternoon performance slot. The second performance of "The Drugs." It's a very odd, sort of abstract piece, featuring music and ecstatic poetry. We were totally in the moment and it all went off without a hitch. Very happy. Lots of strangers came up after the show to tell how much they liked it. Very surprised it was so well received.

Then we sat back and watched. And as always the Fest comes up with some incredible theatrical surprises.

Loved the Bald Soprano's verison of Eugene Ionesco's "Jack, Or the Submission." Soundtrack provided by the two heads - Radio and Portis. For some reason Ionesco is the perfect playwright for this time, this place. His works translate very well to our silly and tragic pop cultural melange. The Bald Soprano's do great work bringing this long gone playwright into the present moment. Ionesco absolutely sings!

And then Gary Bairos did his superb, beautiful, devastating, totally inspiring monologue, "Jimmy Gamble." What to say? One man on stage, brings a world alive. The world of a Chicago hustler. And it is just breath-takingly great. Can't say enough about it. This is what theater is all about. A human being telling a story. And everything in the world is in the telling. Riveting.