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Send in the crowns
Richard Foreman's latest raucous creation, "King Cowboy Rufus Rules the Universe," lets you seek out your own meaning in it, but makes no secret of its relevance to the reign of our present-day clown prince.
By JOSEPH LANGHAM
Offoffoff.com
My, what a big hat. It sets at an odd angle atop a rather odd, effete and
large man who is speaking with a drawn out royal accent to an odd, yet
seemingly smaller man wearing a chalk board that speaks in classic, yet
rhythmic Brooklynese as they are both in adoration of a lovely lass, who
speaks... very... deliber..ate...ly. Sound strange? It is! Who is this Rufus?
Is he cowboy, or is he fop? Is he just another John Wayne in Malvolio's
clothing? What power does he crave? Does the Baron stand in his way, or is
he somehow a co-conspirator helping him to achieve his lofty goals? What
does Susie have to do with anything? These are some of the many questions
left deftly unanswered by the great, inimitable, Mr. Richard Foreman. How on
earth is one to review such madness? Why is there no entry for "madness" in
the thesaurus? Why will this word occur so oft in this review? These are
questions left unanswered by a rather unworthy reviewer.
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Let us start with a general description of the evening denying any
temptation to get, shall we say, avant-reviewish. When we walk into the
famed Ontological-Hysteric Theater we are greeted by a line of people, who
like us, wish they had arrived much earlier. Alas, we have not, and
everyone seems a little tense in getting a seat. Silly Americans, not
everything is about you, you, you. And so, we, we, we take our seats and
proceed to enjoy ourselves quite immensely and at times quite fanatically.
The set is pure bright madness with ropes, classical paintings, kooky
splashes of clashing colors, and a mass assortment of odds and ends dangling
dangerously from the ceiling. It is, perhaps, comparable to "Alice in
Wonderland" with no Alice and no Wonderland. First, the audience is greeted
by The Baron Herman De Voto, the deadpan owner of a soon to be defunct
cigarrette factory. He introduces us to Susie Sitwell whom he would like to
attempt the old blindfold, cigarette and knife trick. He rares back, knife
in hand and decides against it. These first few moments set the pace of the
evening and let us know that we are in for an extremely bizarre ride full
of, yes, you guessed it, madness. Then, in ambles King Cowboy Rufus. Oh,
and the glorious, revolutionary mayhem ensues...
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There is at this particular point in a review such as this, an enticement to
attempt to interpret the hidden message of such a quirky play. To attempt
such an interpretation would be, to put it bluntly, wrong. To say what one
feels each character and their actions represent, would serve only to take
this opportunity away from a prospective audience member. So at that we will
leave any interpretations up to you. And you should definitely go see it.
And you should spend hours with your friends picking it apart. What fun!
The bleedingly obvious character reference and one that is touted in the
program and on the website is that King Cowboy Rufus is an artistic
typification of the greed that lies deep within the leader of our current
administration. In his artist's statement in the program, Foreman says,
"But though I am anti-Bush and anti-war — I don't find it artistically
satisfactory to simply 'preach to the converted' and create a theatrical
diatribe that expresses my political views." In all honesty, it might have
been a stronger choice to leave any statement of what this play is or isn't
out of the artist's statement, and let the ideas expressed live freely to be
deciphered as they may. While it is fun for many of the "converted" to
laugh at Boy Bush, perhaps if all Bush references had been left out of
printed materials, some of the "non-converted" would have attended the show,
and said to themselves, "Holy crap, I think I voted for that guy." But
then again, they might well have said, "I like this Rufus fellow. That man is
a born leader."
Aside from any program/promotional criticism, this play was an absolute
delectable delight. Never did the action falter, never did the set or sound
design fail to entice, and never did the performances of the talented cast
and capable stage crew waiver. T Ryder Smith's portrayal of The Baron Herman
De Voto, was hilariously simple and extraordinarily level-headed in its
focus. He was like The Fonz on 50 doses of Valium. This understated
performance paved a clear path for Jay Smith's beautifully contradictory
way-far-over-the-top King Cowboy Rufus. One of the biggest laughs of the
evening came when The Baron hollowly says, "Use your imagination." and Rufus
painfully proclaims, "I don't have one." Juliana Francis as Susie Sitwell
turned in a performance filled with a nice range of emotions and quite the
lovely singing voice. Her deliberate speech and pace set up many a joke such
as, "My name... is Susie... Sitwell." to which Rufus replies, waving his hanky,
"Oh, and you do. You do."
In case you don't know already, Richard Foreman is legendary. He has won
many awards, written and directed a ton of plays, and has understandably had
books written about him. This play is deliriously fun and manages to remain
poignant without smacking you over the head with anything but wacky madness
and brutal impetuosity. While this is the first Foreman play that this
reviewer has seen, it most certainly won't be the last. You should go see
this one. If you can't see this one, see the next one titled "The Gods:
When Does the Movie Start?" slated for Late Summer/Fall/Winter 2004. If you
live this life without seeing a play by this national treasure, you, poor
soul, have cheated yourself.
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FEBRUARY 3, 2004
OFFOFFOFF.COM • THE GUIDE TO ALTERNATIVE NEW YORK
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