My overall impression
Review is re-“printed” from www.LATheatreReview.com:
When everyman Jeff Gardner enters the Elephant’s richly transformed playing space and settles into his cushy recliner for an evening of television, the audience can’t help but giggle at his dopey pajamas and monkey stuffed animal. Through movement and facial gestures alone, we see a man who, unlike us theatre-goers, is completely absorbed in his mediated existence full of ginormous remote controls, guilt-trip advertising, and absurd scenarios such as the premise of Doogie Howser, MD. When a freak electrical storm sandwiches Gardner between television land and “studio” audience reality, the nightmarish landscape and unfriendly games (complete with an incredibly discomfiting- and at times, glorious- light and soundscape) somehow change him. I must have missed the dramatic impetus, but as soon as he rewinds his existence and, amidst arabesques and raining popcorn, destroys his television, the tables are turned. A soundtrack of projected responses to the play is heard (“That was crap,” “I hope this show gets good reviews”), as Gardner stares out at the us, prodding the audience to consider what they just settled in to watch. The self-reflexive piece of multi-media theatre is engaging and intriguing, if not yet fully-evolved, and is definitely not for those sensitive to strobe lights or loud sound.
