Yes, it was a Bloody Mess

Bloody Mess. Forced Entertainment. Freud Playhouse. UCLA Live. 12/4/05.

Forced Entertainment is apparently the UK's answer to The Wooster Group. I hear that they have several digital media performances and shows that integrate film. Bloody Mess wasn't one of those, but it was fascinating nonetheless. It started out with a hilarious clown act between two men, which culminated in the distruction of innocent mismatched chairs of the sort that belong in low budget blackbox theaters. This bit started the audience off laughing and set the spirit and the breakneck pace of the whole show.

Bloody Mess was a delightfully critical deconstruction of the business and labor of theater, moving back and forth between the spectacle of pretentious postmodern performance by the likes of Robert Wilson and the Wooster Group and the excessive effects of a rock concert. While a clever critique, the performance was also entertainment all its own, perfectly capable of captivating an audience for two and a half hours without intermission. It was a crazy, wacky experience that left me emotionally drained and a bit exhausted.