Duett at the Loeb Experimental Theater

Tonight is the final performance of "Duett" in the EX at the Loeb Experimental Theater in Cambridge. I'm going to guess that no one who reads Particles of Light has been to the show yet; when I went, only 10 of the 40+ seats were occupied. Which is tragic, because the show was fantastic. I went to see it on 12 June because my daughter is in it, as one of the unnamed, bow-tie sporting on-stage props people. I fervently hope there will be a full house tonight, because by golly, I want my daughter to be appreciated for her dedication to elegantly pouring fake blood all over Catrin Lloyd-Bollad's foundation garment.

Backing up now.

Duett, written by Amy Stebbins, is inspired by Heiner Muller's "Quartet" (in turn, inspired by Choderlos de Laclos's novel, Les Liaisons Dangereuses) and Soren Kierkegaard's "Either/Or." I don't know if Amy Stebbins's production owes anything to Robert Wilson's, which is the subject of the review I've linked to, in order to give some background on Quartet, but I figured it was better to link to a review than nothing. All of this to say that the show was a dialogue on hedonism and ethics, discussed by the Vicomte de Valmont and the Marquise de Merteuil (you may have seen them portrayed by John Malkovich and Glen Close in the 1988 film Dangerous Liaisons). That's all I can say that the show is "about" because in order to analyze the show and provide my own reading, I'd have to see it several more times, and as I've mentioned, the last show is tonight.

What I can say, in addition, is that the show has great original music composed by Mike Einziger, the guitarist for the band Incubus. Catrin Lloyd-Bollard (the Marquise) and Dan Pecci (the Vicomte) are brilliant actors, singers, and dancers. Separately, they are excellent, and together, electric. They are funny, frightening, clearly fiercely intelligent, and I wish every house had been packed to see them interacting so cleverly and emotionally with the images projected on the enormous screen/giant egg downstage. They taunted each other, lusted after one another, tore each other apart. They enacted and reenacted a particular dialogue from Les Liaisons Dangereuses, singing, sitting in a projected drawing room (cleverly propped against the screen in seated posture), shrieking, fighting, and inevitably, dying. All the while, two bow-tied servants attended to them, filming them, setting up their props, re-setting them physically after scenes (one, two, three, hoist!), and inevitably, killing them. Some scenes were difficult to watch. Some scenes were especially difficult to watch my daughter filming with a handheld camera. I kept thinking, what on earth have I given her permission to do?

But I recognize art when I see it, and this was art. Plastic bottles of blood and all.

Watch the trailer:

Highly recommended.