Aw Keats, Keats Motherfucker!
nytheatre.com review by Josephine Cashman
September 2, 2010
Entering the theatre, the audience is blasted with Lil John's "Get Low," and it's off on a quirky, freaky and intriguing play titled Aw Keats, Keats Motherfucker! by Reconnoiter under the Incubator Arts Project.
There are two Keatses: There is John Keats (Keats 1), the last of the romantic poets, who died at 25 of tuberculosis. The other Keats is Jonathon Keats (Keats 2), a modern day (and still alive) conceptual and philosophical artist.
The first act delves into the last night of John Keats's life—he is in Rome, being nursed by one of his closest friends, Josef Sevren. Played by William Moody, Sevren is both loving and impersonal: it is as if Keats 1 is pulling away from everyone he has affection for. While he clings to life, he imagines nurses who are both angels and angels of death. In his fever dreams, he imagines talking to his brother Thomas, with whom he was very close. Thomas also died from tuberculosis. John Keats nursed his brother until he died, and possibly contracted tuberculosis from him.
The director and playwright, Stiven Luka, has certainly done his homework. Those knowledgeable with Keats 1 will recognize the bowl of grapes on at table and the heavy makeup that resembles both Kabuki and Noh plays, both reminiscent of the death mask of Keats 1. There are also flowers, another nod to Keats 1, and the details enrich the experience, as do the bursts of energy and movement. In his effort to stave off death, this Keats maniacally dances around the room, trying to escape it as if he could escape his own death. Other characters behind him smoke and use snuff while Keats 1 struggles to breathe, fighting until his inevitable end.
Act Two focuses on Jonathon Keats, an artist who debuted in 2000 with 24 hour Cogito, in which he sat in a chair for 24 hours, staring at a nude model. Other works that Keats 2 has since done include a porn theatre for houseplants, and extraterrestrial art, where he created paintings based on signals from an Observatory Radiotelescope. Keats 2 is, clearly, a very successful and interesting artist who continues to explore experimental forms of art and thought.
In this act, Keats 2 seems to explore the nature of love, action, and fear. It is not nearly as strong at the first. The use of video is interesting, but lacks verve, becoming a little tedious as the audience watches Keats 2 stare. It does not seem that the second act has been fully thought through. Or, maybe it is so close to Keats 2's talent for creating absurd and whimsical pieces that it is lost in the spectacle and the audience has trouble following along. The second act feels more like a rough draft than a complete piece, but it has many fun and provocative moments.
Both Keatses are played by Evan Watkins, who is energetic, pensive, and physically powerful as he takes on the characters of two artist who are very different from each other: John Keats 1, dying a painful death with his young life unfinished and the bright potential of his work cut short, and Jonathan Keats 2, robustly pushing the boundaries of thought and art. The rest of the cast handles the language of the play very well and they sound as if they are speaking beautiful verse, even when, perhaps, they are not. The sound design is practically a character unto itself—it not only highlights the players on stage, it practically invades them as it comments on the action happening onstage. At times, though, the sound makes it difficult to hear the actors' dialogue.
The lighting (designed by Vadim Ledvin) veers from stark white to psychedelic colors as the characters slide from one imaginary world to another more realistic one, assisting the audience as they keep up with the fascinating twists and turns of this play. Special notice and praise also goes to stage manager Tom Blake, who runs this technically heavy show with a skillful and expert hand.
For anyone who is familiar and well-versed with either Keats 1 or 2, this play will be a treat. For those who know little about either, it might be somewhat mystifying and confusing but still fascinating. Reconnoiter seems to have bitten off a little more than it can chew, but the result, however flawed in the second act, is one that is dense, mesmerizing, and well worth seeing.
