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READ REVIEWS GET IN ON THE TEEN SCENES TEEN REVIEWERS AND CRITICS LINKS TO OTHER COOL STUFF |
Andrew Collins Andrew Reviews Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind by the New York Neo Futurists  When you first walk in to see Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind you feel a shock of nervous excitement run down your spine. This is because you just realized that the ticket prices are as uncertain as the roll of a die (literally). You are greeted by a member of the cast, who hands you a giant rubber die. The admission price is whatever number comes up on the die, plus ten dollars (divided by one) -- meaning that you will have to pay anywhere between $11 and $16 dollars. Talk about first impressions! That alone should should give you a taste of the general paranoia buzzing around the room, when it's up to the audience to oversee and participate in the performance of 30 plays in 60 minutes. When you walk into the theater, you are greeted by a man who always gets everyone's name wrong. You notice that there are about 30 numbered pieces of paper hanging from a clothesline across the stage. You see on the back of your bulletin the names of 30 plays such as The Ant Christ and Pandemonium. You begin to get the idea -- as they perform each play in the order written on the back of the bulletin, they will take down the number on the clothesline. But you're wrong. A cast member tells the audience that the order of the plays is entirely up to them. This show was amazing. It was hilarious. The feeling of self-accomplishment you get if you have managed to complete all 30 plays in 60 minutes is tremendous. Furthermore, the cast of Too Much Light... was able to make absurd interactions seem ordinary. It's rare that you get to see something surreal that doesn't scream out its own surreal-ness (like Godot has Left the Building), but instead takes something as strange as a teddy bear having a mental breakdown and make it seem like something seen on a regular basis. This is what makes the show refreshingly funny throughout the entire 60 minutes. The greatest thing about these plays, however, is that they're completely random two-minute skits that don't link together in any way, shape or form. And when I say "random," I mean random. Once you've seen an ant ascend to the heavens, you know random. As someone with ADHD, I can fully appreciate the art of randomness, and after watching Too Much Light..., I know that the performers (who also happen to be the writers) share this appreciation. I'd recommend this play to anyone with 16 bucks. But who knows? You might get in for just $11. Or, if you're a teen -- just $5! |