Beyond Kindness
On the Boards, 217-9888.
Through Dec 17.
FANS OF LOCAL performancemeister Matt Smith will note that this project departs from his usual work, wending into a direction that, as a studio piece, takes the risk of sticking to its topic so thoroughly that entertainment value is sacrificed. And that’s not a bad thing at all. Watching Smith, I couldn’t help thinking of Andy Kaufman’s infamous performance in which he read The Great Gatsby in its entirety to a surprised, then bored college audience. Smith’s piece is nothing so conceptual and tedious as that; in Beyond Kindness, he delivers a fake seminar that toys with the line between boring and engaging–and messing with this line is one of the most exciting things that an artist can do, I think.
Smith’s parody is all about character: He’s one of those creepy soft-spoken and self-indulgent New Agers who, full of annoying lingo, fly on quiet ego trips while behaving passive-aggressively. The character is so full-up that I found myself looking for fissures in the façade. Couldn’t find any. The piece is layered with funny bits and digressions about the guy (including a really strange one about his imitating a donkey during sex), and even Smith’s easy-fit pants and crew neck sweater are somehow as gross as the vaguely spiritual New Ager himself. Smith never veers from the guy’s plodding seminar and wordy extemporanea, which made me antsy for a while, especially during the first third of the work, when it seemed Smith was trying to find his feet. Yet through this, he retained control, adding weird details that seemed to whet the audience’s desire for more of this perverse, patient parody.
The evening’s highlight, as fans might expect, comes in the form of this performer’s uncanny improvisations. He asks audience members’ opinions of the holidays, then bats these back with startling agility and twistedness that works double-time, both focusing this nutty character and somehow bringing the piece to a crescendo. Thinking audiences will savor Beyond Kindness.