What a performance arty weekend! It began with Iron Composer, Seattle School’s drunken musical obstacle course at the Crocodile, and ended with watching Super Size Me while eating a few industrially produced cheeseburgers. But the cream was in between: the UK duo Lone Twin.
Thank On the Boards for summoning Gregg and Gary, who spent five days riding the route of the proposed monorail on tiny fold-up bikes.
Critics describe Lone Twin’s work as “funny” and “moving.” Accurate, but Lone Twin’s overriding quality is sweetness. They are innocents abroad, come to tell us interesting things about ourselves in an outsider’s unassuming way.
The two deliver their observations in a series of toasts and occasional elaborations: “To Greg Nickels legs! Nice legs! To the Seattle Storm! Way to go! To Mount St. Helens! Way to go!”
What they do stands between theater and “performance art” (a flabby term that should be wiped from our vocabulary. It’s all theater, even if it’s weird). Lone Twin’s theater is weird and wonderful, in delivery as well as method: exploring a city through an imagined transportation route, for example.
“We’re framing ourselves as tourists,” said Gregg. “These performances veer between glib tourist comments (‘There’s a great view’) and stories about John-on-the-bus who would step in front of the wrecking ball if it would stop the monorail…. Everybody has something to say about the monorail, why it should be here and not there. That leads to broader stories about Seattle.”
As I was listening to Gregg talk about listening to other people talk about the monorail, I realized the damn thing was more metaphor than anything else–symbolizing a desire for urbane maturity or a fear of shattering a nostalgic vision of Old Seattle. That’s why I toast the arty out-of-towners. To the arty out-of-towners! You are funny! And moving! And sweet! And useful!
Lone Twin will perform at On the Boards Oct 20-24. Call 217-9888 for details.
