Deconstructing the Absurdist Spectacle: A Satirical Exploration of Power and Art

In a captivating fusion of Marx Brothers-esque pratfalls and Machiavellian political intrigue, the Alliance for New Music-Theatre has crafted a comic chamber opera that delves into the intersections of art, power, and the human condition. Inspired by the Dadaist principles of American visual artist Man Ray, this 90-minute one-act production promises to be both prescient and precocious, challenging audiences to rethink the structures that govern our world.

Unmasking the Absurdities of Power and Creativity

Philosophical Sparring and Dadaist Revelations

The production opens with a foreboding bass line, the cello's voice chiming in and being answered by the piano, setting the stage for a philosophical odyssey. Wo-Man Ray, a beret-wearing figure, schools the audience in a patter song exploring "Possibilities & The Seven Elements of Art." From behind a curtain, Caesar emerges, spouting his "Greatest Hits" from Shakespeare, toggling between maniacal and mundane as he exhorts the audience to build a new Rome.The ingenue, Kiki, is inspired by Man Ray's Parisian artist's model and muse, clad in a black sequined gown and turban, seductive in pointe shoes and barefoot. Screening on the backdrop, period black-and-white films depict the collection of junk that became Dadaist readymades, as well as films of Man Ray's works, including his eponymous "Rayographs" – photographs made without a camera on light-sensitive photo paper.

Emasculating the Hyper-Controlling and Macho

Caesar, Kiki, and Wo-Man Ray engage in philosophical spats in song, their repartee ranging from nods to the Gallic wars to grammar lessons on the correlative conjunction to the artist as god figure in creative pursuit of the universe. The staging area features a pedestal with a curved half-open pair of columnar sculpture at center stage, a shrouded easel, low box-like benches, and a closet door with the initial caption "Caesar and the Mannequin," allowing for entrances and exits. A roll-on chalkboard provides a space to replicate Man Ray's Dadaist mathematical meanderings, and a wheeled single piano leg serves as an oddball prop, until the final reveal.In portraying Caesar as part dictator, part dodo, and Man Ray as a Wo-Man, the creative team of Galbraith and Simpson emasculates these hyper-controlling and macho historic figures, allowing the audience to re-think power structures in both political and artistic realms.

A Pastiche of Musical Styles and Influences

Composer Andrew Earle Simpson's score draws on a pastiche of classic operetta, tango, carnival music, jazz, blues, marches, and Sondheim, finely played by the five-piece ensemble. The performers, including John Boulanger as Caesar, Cara Schaefer as Wo-Man Ray, and Danielle McKay as Kiki or the Mannequin, need some more time to fully inhabit their iconic and ironic characters, as finessing slapstick, comedy, and cheekiness is no easy feat.Despite the need for further refinement, the production's mixed-media approach and its political take on power-hungry men, whether from ancient history or modern art, make it a thoughtfully and mostly engagingly produced Dadaist spectacle that challenges the audience to rethink the structures that govern our world.