{"id":200946,"date":"2025-09-05T00:45:20","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T00:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/200946\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T00:45:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T00:45:20","slug":"a-flirtation-with-capitalism-theater-review-new-york-theater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/200946\/","title":{"rendered":"a flirtation, with capitalism theater review \u2013 New York Theater"},"content":{"rendered":"

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When a stranger asks you \u201cso, what do you do?\u201d they\u2019re not asking for your hobbies or habits, your daily activities or nightly dreams. They\u2019re asking what your job is.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jenn Kidwell puts this more harshly: \u201cIt\u2019s shorthand for how much do you make and how important are you while you make it, so I know how to perform my role as it relates to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her comment is a rare moment of coherent insight in Kidwell\u2019s ninety minutes of aggressive theatricality, whose purpose is to \u201cdebunk the alluring tale of American economic might\u201d \u2014 or so we were promised.\u00a0\u00a0I didn\u2019t actually decipher any systematic debunking amid the\u00a0effusion and confusion, effulgence and indulgence\u00a0in \u201cwe come to collect: a flirtation, with capitalism.\u201d<\/p>\n

That title (all lower case, with that counterintuitively-inserted comma )\u00a0struck me as designed to imply some deep meaning that we have to dig out. But what I most appreciated about the show was something right on the surface \u2014 the full integration of American Sign Language, as performed by masterful ASL interpreter Brandon Kazen-Maddox, who is\u00a0a theater artist in his own right<\/a>. On the stage of the Flea, he functions not just as an interpreter, but as a character \u2014 Kidwell\u2019s companion, dance partner and co-conspirator.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The key to understanding Kidwell\u2019s reasons for the show\u2019s craziness \u2014 both the why and the what of it \u2013 may rest in her bit about Mardi Gras. The festival, she tells us, is a \u201cfever dream\u201d permitted by the \u201cpowers that be\u201d so that folks can feel free once a year to dress or act or be however they wish (\u201csaints get to be sinners and paupers get to be kings and politicians are honest\u201d), with the understanding that there is no such freedom again until Mardi Gras the following year.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

So the idea of a Mardi Gras fever dreams surely explains the Mardi Gras beads the two of them throw around, and the dressing up in clownish makeup and outlandish costumes, and their bawdy behavior \u2013 he grabs his crotch, and digs valuables out of her butt; she bares her breasts \u2014 and maybe the set, which suggests a once-elegant New Orleans parlor conducive to acts of debauchery. Maybe it\u2019s also why they engage with individual audience members in not always intellectual or comfortable ways (like rubbing their hair, or snuggling up too close), and maybe why there is a stream of piped-in pop songs (each identified on the screen: Sade\u2019s \u201cThe Sweetest Gift\u201d Susan Boyle singing \u201cI Dreamed a Dream\u201d\u00a0 and Kendrick Lamar\u2019s DNA and the theme from Jeopardy.) I suppose the connection of all this with capitalism is that our obsession with money denies us such freedom to have fun most of the year.\u00a0I\u2019ll confess I wasn\u2019t having as much fun, or finding as much funny, as the two performers seemed to.<\/p>\n

Kidwell does supply plenty of commentary on the subject of money, albeit much of it indirect. These are meant to be reflective, literally; for at least the first twenty minutes, she has her back to us, staring at the backdrop, which is as glossy as a mirror, enabling her to see us, and us to see her. (It will later project relevant cartoons and the American flag.)\u00a0\u00a0How come, she says at one point, \u201cthe only way to \u2018earn my rest\u2019 is by \u2018earning a living.’\u201d At another point, she yells \u201cFuck work\u201d repeatedly (and signs it too.) But given the brevity, frequency, and wide-ranging nature of that commentary, and the noise that surrounded it,\u00a0\u00a0it all seemed more like rants than anything I could take home with me.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Near the end of the show, Kidwell and Kazen-Maddox say and sign: \u201cit\u2019s time to do what we came here to do.\u201d A big QR code is projected on the screen, which leads to her Venmo \u2014 a way to give her money \u2014 and another riff on money, including what she calls a devil nugget: \u201ci neither trust nor believe we\u2019ve worked for your money any less than you have.\u201d Then she adds (because, to be fair, she is surely being cheeky, not greedy): \u201cWhat i believe is entirely reliant on your participation. Doesn\u2019t this just scream seduction?\u201d And suddenly, the title of their show became clear. It was no deep metaphor.\u00a0\u00a0It was literal \u2013 even the comma.<\/p>\n

we come to collect: a flirtation, with capitalism<\/a>
The Flea through September 27
Running time: 90 minutes, no intermission
Tickets: $20 \u2013 $48
Co-written, co-directed, and co-performed by Jenn Kidwell
Written with the artistic collective the blackening, directed with Adam Lazarus, performed with Brandon Kazen-Maddox
Scenic design by\u00a0Jian Jung, lighting design by\u00a0Evan Spigelman, sound design by\u00a0Jordan McCree, video design by\u00a0Matthew Deinhart, and props & objects design by\u00a0Petra Floyd<\/p>\n

Photos by Julieta Cervantes.<\/p>\n

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