3 Themes Every Child Should Know: Amortus, Ed R and His Sack of Beans, & The Fish That Walked Up the Hill and Spilt Milk in His Pajamas
nytheatre.com review by Jared Robinson
August 15, 2003
After several trips around Our Lady of Pompeii Church—no signage
indicates the path—I find my way to Demo Hall… to see 3
Themes Every Child Should Know…, a versed myth with symbols
and metaphors aplenty. This play has a lot to say, some of which
becomes translucent by the end.I settle into my seat wondering who or what I am about to see. No program is available. With the temperature just high enough to cause me to fan, the show begins. When suddenly arrives an aquatic deity, yearning for the things he cannot have. His makeup is impressive and his acting adds some illumination to the play.
About then I begin to wonder, "What is this show saying? But the title should tell me that. Who are these people? But the title should tell me that."
The play proceeds to explore the ideas of love and how people look at it and for it. In a bit of burlesque tomfoolery a man confronts his passivity in life with the image of a woman in the oldest profession.
Sections of this play are fluid and dynamic. The idea of accepting life as it appears versus wanting a world that is foreign resonates throughout. As a couple takes stock of their relationship, they allow another relationship to be born.
After finding my way through the maze of passages in Our Lady of Pompeii, I think it makes sense that this is the play I saw here. 3 Themes is a complex experience requiring some thought to comprehend. Perhaps that is its purpose.
