Seen/By Everyone @ HERE 

Last weekend I was invited to see Seen/By Everyone at HERE down in SoHo. It was created and produced by the ensemble company of Five on a Match. Five on a Match is a collective making art that explores what it means to be a human being in the 21st century. 

The collective writes in the program that they did not “write” the show, they “collaged” it. They pulled from various forms of social media – I’d assume Facebook, Twitter, etc. – and created new characters that are not based on any one single person. The play was 80 minutes of vignettes of how people exist in the world when they post every second of their life to the internet. How they grieve; how they express happiness. 

Although it was a little hard to follow at times, it’s very avantgarde which is always fun and a change from the usual breed of standard straight plays. 

If you’re looking for something a little bit off the beaten path, Seen/By Everyone is your play. 

Advertisement

I’d told Justin about this crazy bulesque/cirque du soleil/ballet show that was based on Cinderella and performed by one of my favorite off-Broadway theatre companies, Company XIV. He said he was down to see it and we went last Wednesday. Nutcracker Rouge is a holiday tradition of mine and I knew Cinderella would be just as thrilling. 

Cinderella didn’t disappoint. It was sexy, raunchy, beautiful, and thrilling. There was burlesque, and the can-can, and pole dancing. The performers and the performances were mind-blowing. More than once my dude inhaled sharply and exclaimed, “oh my god!” 

It was three quick but totally enjoyable acts and worth being out late on a “school” night for. I would definitely recommend this latest fairytale by Company XIV. 

When Hamlet in Bed, a newest work currently being performed at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, got a great write up in Time Out New York, I decided, what the hell, and I went to see it. Time Out is pretty much where I go for all of my off-Broadway recs (besides friends). I thought it would be a reinterpretation of Hamlet but I was completely off base. 

Hamlet in Bed was about a mother and son who didn’t know it. Michael Laurence, the star and playwright, played Michael, an actor and orphan, who has an obsession with Hamlet (the play) and is sold the journal of a woman, Ana (played by Annette O’Toole), who Ophelia in 1975. The journal ends with an entry saying that her son was born on the day that happens to be his birthday and she gave him up for adoption.

He finds her and casts her as Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother, in his adaptation of Hamlet called Hamlet in Bed. The play is dark and twisted, and a bit confusing. Ana has a hallucination (of sorts) once Michael tells her who he is after three weeks of deceiving her.

Hamlet in Bed is a quick 90 minutes and it’s interesting and eerie, especially if you know Hamlet. If you like off the beaten path theatre, head downtown and check it out.