Hey gang, I've got three pairs of tickets to give away to Hand2Mouth Theatre's Uncanny Valley, which opens this weekend and runs through May 22.
A year ago, we sent Blogtown commenters Graham and Two Squatting Women (TSW, these days) to review a workshop version of the show. Of that production, TSW wrote:
Much of the thematic content of the play stems from Proust and other philosophers who’ve mused on fear of the unknown; the anxiety elicited from memories we want to both vividly remember and repress into oblivion. Freud’s essay entitled “The Uncanny,” an analysis of our deep dread of the unknown, looms large in Uncanny Valley along with (surprise!) notions that many of our fears are rooted in repressed childhood memories.The seven-member cast is very strong, playing loose and naturalistic (practically playing themselves, it seemed) with the more straightforward narrative of the first half of the play. The more visually dynamic second half transitions quickly into an unstable blend of Freudian trips down childhood memory lane (the cast all seem to have early memories of weather patterns), dance, stage fog, precipitation, unitards, writhing sirens, bliss, emotional trauma, hissy fits, seizures, revelations, physical scars and a total abandonment of the strict scientific method to which the group aimed to adhere. The broken fourth wall engages the audience, injecting the play with moments of levity and steering it away from the more alienating, inward-gazing traits often ascribed to experimental theater. That doesn’t mean this play is easy. There are no simple story lines or big, Broadway smiles screaming “Love me, please!” But the material, while challenging, doesn’t ever really leave you asking “What the fuck?”
If you'd like to win a pair of tickets, email me with UNCANNY in the subject line by 3 pm today, and your choice of shows—it runs Thurs-Sun 8 pm, and they'll set you up whenever. I'll pick 3 winners at random. If you don't hear back, YOU LOSE.
