A Whole New World
Performance Laboratory Offers Compelling De-Monstration

I’ll never forget the first time I saw actor Jairo Cuesta die. He was playing Macbeth in a three-person version at CPT, and two feet from me, eyes wide open, he just... died. He was staring at the sky, mouth gaped open, and somehow the light went out and his eyes filmed over with death. My jaw literally dropped. Almost 20 years later, I still don’t know how the hell he did it.

This week, the riveting Cuesta stars in another classic: a kinky, surreal, yet darkly funny 6-person version of Frankenstein by the New World Performance Laboratory. "This time, I am born," Cuesta laughs. Oh, is he ever: his Creature is a nightmare figure that springs from the Id of creator Mary Shelley with a ferocity that could blister paint from the wall.

The NWPL production opens this week at the University of Akron, where co-Artistic Director James Slowiak is a professor, right after its two performances at the Cleveland Play House’s FusionFest, and before its summer tour to festivals in Poland and workshops in Italy.

It’s ironic: the Lab is world-famous in experimental theatre circles, yet virtually unknown here except for a small group of almost cult-like devotees. Cuesta and Slowiak were assistants to Polish theatre genius Jerzy Grotowski, and just published a definitive textbook about him for Routledge. I talked to Slowiak about the Lab’s enormous and virtually unrecognized influence on NE Ohio’s performance scene, and what it means to be working here.

Cool Cleveland: You guys have been creating and touring works internationally for, what, 20 years now? And yet you’re still the area's best-kept secret.

James Slowiak: We hadn’t done a performance in Cleveland since Deathwatch at CPT three years ago. We are much better known in Europe and South America than in Akron. We felt like we were working here, very hard, and people were coming here from all over the world to work with us. For example, a guy was here from Poland on a 9-month full fellowship just to train with us. Yet we're virtual strangers in the Akron area – almost like monks in seclusion.

We realized a couple of years ago that we’d been neglecting our home base in Akron. One thing we’ve been trying to do of late is open up to the community. We’ve tried to get people interested in the research itself – not just 6 weeks of rehearsal and put it on. It seems to be working. When we presented a workshop of the piece last October, it was the best attended of anything we've done.

This version of Frankenstein was so intriguing to me. I’ve never seen any adaptation before that made it so clear that Frankenstein is the creation of a woman, and reflected the stresses and concerns from her own life. I loved how Victor Frankenstein becomes a reflection of her husband Percy –- vaguely impotent and cowed by the ferocity of the sexual urge.

The autobiographical elements were always there. When we started to work on it a year ago, we read the novel, then watched a lot of movies. We were very influenced by Ken Russell’s film Gothic, which showed the relationship between Mary Shelley, her poet husband, and Lord Byron -– and how the story reflected their relationships.

You guys are incredibly influential, in your teaching and sheer presence. You're at University of Akron, and Jairo teaches the CPH/CWRU MFA students. Most people here don’t know how many artists initially moved to Cleveland to work and train with you. Raymond Bobgan at CPT, Holly Holsinger now at CPT and CSU, Massoud Saidpour at the Cleveland Museum of Art – your influence is everywhere.

And isn't it fascinating that in the next two weeks we’re going to see works directed by all of these artists? Raymond and Holly are directing the Gao Xianjian plays at CPT, and Massoud is opening a solo show with Terry Cranendonk (also a former company member) at Playhouse Square. It’s a veritable festival of Jerzy Grotowski graduates.

Don’t forget Inda Blatch-Geib, our costumer -– she’s doing costumes for all of us, too.

Inda's work in Frankenstein is stunning -- the costumes and sets are so rich yet raggedy. Really, the whole piece is so dream-like. When my mother saw it at FusionFest, her comment was: “Now I have to go home and figure out the dream I just had.”

Then she is the perfect spectator! That’s it, exactly!

Frankenstein: A De-Monstration opens at the University of Akron's Sandefur Theater, May 16-31. Visit NWPL online at their site http://nwplab.tripod.com/id2.html.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Linda Eisenstein lindaATcoolcleveland.com
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