A (radically condensed and expanded) Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again After David Foster Wallace - Out There at the Walker

(Originally posted on Minnesota Theater Love)

Photo: Paula Court

A (radically condensed and expanded) Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again After David Foster Wallace is the second show playing the Out There series at the Walker Art Center. (For the sake of this review, I will be shortening the title to "...Fun Thing...") As is typical with the Out There series (and one of the joys) I had no idea what I was walking into when I stepped into the McGuire Theater at the Walker Art Center. The stage was covered in tennis balls, all set in very straight diagonal lines. At the center was a sound panel in the middle of the stage, and towards the right was a laptop, and a mixing board along with two small covered stools. The left of the stage had a tennis ball machine that was shooting tennis balls at a photo at the center back of the stage. There is a rhythm to the machine, the ball hitting the back stage, then bouncing on the right side of the stage. It was hypnotic and also fascinating to see how the balls hit at slightly different locations on the photo, and landed at slightly different places as well. Four actors came on stage - John Amir, Therese Plaehn, Mary Rasmussen, and Jenny Seastone. They went to the center floor panel, picked up headphones, put them on and went to the back wall.

Photo: Paula Court

Soon one of them stands up and starts talking, and it is clear by what is being said that she is repeating what she is hearing on the headphones - the words of David Foster Wallace. Soon all four of the actors are up, words coming out of their mouth, explaining how audio books don't have footnotes and yet the book that is being read has footnotes so how do you do footnotes on an audio book. Then a story about being on a cruise (Pampered to Death, part II, starting on pg 11 of link) begins. It is being broken up between all four of the actors, each speaking when they get the words in the headphones. One side effect of this is that at times the same section of story is being told by all four, each starting at the same point but each being slightly delayed. This gives it a very Steve Reich feel, very minimalist and very interesting sonically. Other times one person starts a sentence while another person joins in and eventually takes over. The actors step forward while telling the cruise story and while there is some movement, it doesn't seem to be choreographed or specifically staged. I am sure that it was but it has a very natural feel to it. It is also very obvious when the actor is having trouble keeping up with the words, or when the words have been sped up. After the cruise story, the stage goes dark except for single spotlight. One actor stands in the light and starts doing jumping jacks while giving a one-sided "interview" with a bathroom attendant (Brief Interview #42). At times the other actors speak the word "cue" which I realized was actually "Q" for when the person leading the interview asked a question.

After section, John Amir comes towards the front and talks about Tracy Austin (link shows photo and has a secondary link to the text) - the tennis player featured in the photo at the center back of the stage. He is telling us the write-up that David Foster Wallace wrote about Tracy Austin's autobiography. After this piece, in which the three other actors sit at the back of the stage and provide quotes, all four actors put down their headsets and clear the stage. They spend the time pushing all the tennis balls to the back of the stage. Personally, I love moments like this - when there is a pause in a show, giving the audience a break but also keeping them interested by how each actors helps clear.  While the actors are doing this, three microphone stands are set down the center of the stage, from front to back. The headsets go back on and there is a final story about turning 13, followed by a very brief commentary from an interview with David Foster Wallace's sister. The interview  (last three minutes or so) is from after he committed suicide and is amusing but also sad.

Photo: Paula Court

The concept and direction is by Daniel Fish. He was also live mixing the show, giving the actors their words, speeding up some words, giving others some time. The show was fascinating, and it did force you to really take time to listen to this avalanche of words coming your way. As an audience member I was interested in the story, what was being told - but I was just as interested in the process and seeing these amazing actors do what they do. I was able to talk to the cast after the show up at the Balcony Bar and that conversation was just as interesting and fun as the show.  As with all Out There shows - take a chance and go see it. You never know what you are going to get but it will open your mind up.

ps: I had never heard or read David Foster Wallace before last night. I may not be a fan of his work but I'm willing to give him a try after my experience. Some of his writing is really wordy but a lot of what I heard was precise and visual and very enjoyable to hear. The links above are what I could find of each section on the internet. The show "...Fun Thing..." is based on works from A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, Consider the Lobster, and Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. They were all adapted for the stage by Daniel Fish.