This is Not for You
#3 on top ten productions of '09 - TC Daily Planet, Jay Gabler
3. This is Not for You, Jeremey Catterton
Scary movies freak me out a little bit, but haunted houses scare the crap out of me. Why? Because they're not safe. A poltergeist is not going to come out of your TV, but that chainsaw in the Soap Factory basement might just be real. Jeremey Catterton—who, as I acknowledged in my review of this show, is a friend of mine—feels strongly that theater should be real as well, that it shouldn't be in any way safe. This is Not for You would have been worthwhile if only as an exercise in breaking a lot of rules governing music concerts and theatrical performances—higher-paying ticket buyers didn't just get to sit closer, they were actually escorted off, in full view of everyone else, to see things that the others would not get to see at all—but as it happened, the show was also a moving, memorable experience that had as its soundtrack what turned out to be one of the best local albums of the year (Peter Wolf Crier's Inter-Be). The show felt like a stolen moment, an experience so intimate it was almost uncomfortable; maybe that's why Catterton opened each performance by standing in front of the curtain and somberly cautioning the audience, "This is not for you."
Scary movies freak me out a little bit, but haunted houses scare the crap out of me. Why? Because they're not safe. A poltergeist is not going to come out of your TV, but that chainsaw in the Soap Factory basement might just be real. Jeremey Catterton—who, as I acknowledged in my review of this show, is a friend of mine—feels strongly that theater should be real as well, that it shouldn't be in any way safe. This is Not for You would have been worthwhile if only as an exercise in breaking a lot of rules governing music concerts and theatrical performances—higher-paying ticket buyers didn't just get to sit closer, they were actually escorted off, in full view of everyone else, to see things that the others would not get to see at all—but as it happened, the show was also a moving, memorable experience that had as its soundtrack what turned out to be one of the best local albums of the year (Peter Wolf Crier's Inter-Be). The show felt like a stolen moment, an experience so intimate it was almost uncomfortable; maybe that's why Catterton opened each performance by standing in front of the curtain and somberly cautioning the audience, "This is not for you."
This is Not for You
Selections from Rock n' theater
by Tom Poole
A committed dis-enthusiast at heart The night I saw This Is Not For You I went home and raved at the rest of my family that they had to see it. This is not like me. I’m not what you’d characterize as an “enthusiast,” generally speaking, and I’m specifically not enthusiastic about most experimental stuff and most musical theater. I realize those are pretty broad categories of dislike, but I actually have an even larger list of types of theater I don’t much care for, big chunks of stuff that other people just love, and that I cannot sit still for. I’m really more of a “disenthusiast” at heart.
I have what I call The Big House theory of theater. The world of theater is like a Big House, I like to say (smoke rising from the rain of pipe ash upon my sweater, World’s Best Dad mug of scotch in hand). There are many rooms in the house, many I will not enter, a few I don’t mind visiting for a bath or a sandwich, but only a couple where I’m really going to enjoy spending long periods of time. I think there are a lot of people just like me, but with a totally different set of rooms.
So it’s a good thing that it’s a BIG house.
I was really happy in the This Is Not For You house. It turned out to be an entire house inside one of my rooms, an idea which would have been very at home in the world of the play.
The experience was something like finding yourself walking through music videos for a bunch of your favorite songs you’ve never heard before in an alternate universe where music videos are actually entertaining and intelligent. There were soap bubbles and feeds from tiny video cameras and secret rooms explored by candlelight and actors playing percussion by slamming the doors of kitchen cabinets. Parts of some songs drifted in from other rooms. For one number the floor underfoot was the drums, played up to the audience on the ceiling of the room below.
The event was developed as an ensemble piece, I believe, under the direction of Jeremy Catterton of Lion Lays With Lamb, whose production of The Black Arts is currently being produced at the Guthrie as part of their Singled Out festival of work by emerging artists.
Catterton also directed a production of another musical group’s multi-media theatrical event, Idigaragua, featuring the music of Fort Wilson Riot, which played to strong reviews at Bedlam Theatre in 2007. (I missed Idigaragua, but I don’t intend to miss The Black Arts, described as “inspired by a new wave of 'hard rock' magicians.")
(Full Article)
Selections from Rock n' theater
by Tom Poole
A committed dis-enthusiast at heart The night I saw This Is Not For You I went home and raved at the rest of my family that they had to see it. This is not like me. I’m not what you’d characterize as an “enthusiast,” generally speaking, and I’m specifically not enthusiastic about most experimental stuff and most musical theater. I realize those are pretty broad categories of dislike, but I actually have an even larger list of types of theater I don’t much care for, big chunks of stuff that other people just love, and that I cannot sit still for. I’m really more of a “disenthusiast” at heart.
I have what I call The Big House theory of theater. The world of theater is like a Big House, I like to say (smoke rising from the rain of pipe ash upon my sweater, World’s Best Dad mug of scotch in hand). There are many rooms in the house, many I will not enter, a few I don’t mind visiting for a bath or a sandwich, but only a couple where I’m really going to enjoy spending long periods of time. I think there are a lot of people just like me, but with a totally different set of rooms.
So it’s a good thing that it’s a BIG house.
I was really happy in the This Is Not For You house. It turned out to be an entire house inside one of my rooms, an idea which would have been very at home in the world of the play.
The experience was something like finding yourself walking through music videos for a bunch of your favorite songs you’ve never heard before in an alternate universe where music videos are actually entertaining and intelligent. There were soap bubbles and feeds from tiny video cameras and secret rooms explored by candlelight and actors playing percussion by slamming the doors of kitchen cabinets. Parts of some songs drifted in from other rooms. For one number the floor underfoot was the drums, played up to the audience on the ceiling of the room below.
The event was developed as an ensemble piece, I believe, under the direction of Jeremy Catterton of Lion Lays With Lamb, whose production of The Black Arts is currently being produced at the Guthrie as part of their Singled Out festival of work by emerging artists.
Catterton also directed a production of another musical group’s multi-media theatrical event, Idigaragua, featuring the music of Fort Wilson Riot, which played to strong reviews at Bedlam Theatre in 2007. (I missed Idigaragua, but I don’t intend to miss The Black Arts, described as “inspired by a new wave of 'hard rock' magicians.")
(Full Article)
This is Not For You. featuring Peter Wolf Crier
TC Daily Planet:
But if you do happen to miss this show, and you someday run into someone who saw it, you probably shouldn't ask them about it. When you hear what they have to say, you'll be kicking yourself. -Jay Gabler
To Kill a Petty Bourgeoisie "the needle" (video)
Pitchfork Media:
The Minneapolis experimental rockers offer a bleak clip inspired by the German expressionist films of the 1920s. Yes, it will give you nightmares. Directed by Jeremey Catterton.
Fort Wilson Riot presents: Idigaragua, directed by Catterton
Variety:
Every devoted theatergoer lives for the thrill of the left-field discovery, the unheralded show that excites with unexpected daring and ambition: "Idigaragua" represents just such a project. -Quinton Skinner
How Was the Show.com:
The musical and dramatic build is clearly not accidental and demonstrates a serious respect for and appreciation of form. Assembled less artfully, and this is a testament to the skill of director Jeremey Catterton as much as to the band, the entire show might easily be farcical instead of the thought-providing piece that it is.
-David de Young
Tenebrism, the 1st experiment in the Theatre of Disruption
How Was the Show.com:
Fans of more traditionally-structured theater may not be thrilled by the informality and edginess of this dark farce, but I really enjoyed it. -David de Young
TC Daily Planet:
As Catterton struggled, with stuttering gusto, to communicate an abstract (and possibly nonexistent) thesis about the parallels among Jesus Christ (as portrayed by Willem Dafoe in Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ), Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis (as portrayed by Sam Riley in Anton Corbijn’s Control), and St. Matthew (as painted by Caravaggio), Deis perched at the keyboard to drink, smoke, heave her well-suspended cleavage at the audience, and heckle an increasingly brittle Catterton—who finally collapsed into tears and sang “Love Will Tear Us Apart.” -Jay Gabler
EXITNOEXIT: As Performed by the Inmates of Ghostwood Minimal Security Prison, adapted/directed by Catterton
The Rake:
Jeremey Catterton. Remember his name, as this play foreshadows greatness for him...“EXITNOEXIT” gets under your skin, expressing the loneliness, torn humanity, angry despair and ragged longings endured by 2 million prisoners—two-thirds incarcerated for non-violent drug-related offenses. Catterton’s disturbing mirror demands we face “the forgotten.” -Lydia Howell
TC Daily Planet:
But if you do happen to miss this show, and you someday run into someone who saw it, you probably shouldn't ask them about it. When you hear what they have to say, you'll be kicking yourself. -Jay Gabler
To Kill a Petty Bourgeoisie "the needle" (video)
Pitchfork Media:
The Minneapolis experimental rockers offer a bleak clip inspired by the German expressionist films of the 1920s. Yes, it will give you nightmares. Directed by Jeremey Catterton.
Fort Wilson Riot presents: Idigaragua, directed by Catterton
Variety:
Every devoted theatergoer lives for the thrill of the left-field discovery, the unheralded show that excites with unexpected daring and ambition: "Idigaragua" represents just such a project. -Quinton Skinner
How Was the Show.com:
The musical and dramatic build is clearly not accidental and demonstrates a serious respect for and appreciation of form. Assembled less artfully, and this is a testament to the skill of director Jeremey Catterton as much as to the band, the entire show might easily be farcical instead of the thought-providing piece that it is.
-David de Young
Tenebrism, the 1st experiment in the Theatre of Disruption
How Was the Show.com:
Fans of more traditionally-structured theater may not be thrilled by the informality and edginess of this dark farce, but I really enjoyed it. -David de Young
TC Daily Planet:
As Catterton struggled, with stuttering gusto, to communicate an abstract (and possibly nonexistent) thesis about the parallels among Jesus Christ (as portrayed by Willem Dafoe in Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ), Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis (as portrayed by Sam Riley in Anton Corbijn’s Control), and St. Matthew (as painted by Caravaggio), Deis perched at the keyboard to drink, smoke, heave her well-suspended cleavage at the audience, and heckle an increasingly brittle Catterton—who finally collapsed into tears and sang “Love Will Tear Us Apart.” -Jay Gabler
EXITNOEXIT: As Performed by the Inmates of Ghostwood Minimal Security Prison, adapted/directed by Catterton
The Rake:
Jeremey Catterton. Remember his name, as this play foreshadows greatness for him...“EXITNOEXIT” gets under your skin, expressing the loneliness, torn humanity, angry despair and ragged longings endured by 2 million prisoners—two-thirds incarcerated for non-violent drug-related offenses. Catterton’s disturbing mirror demands we face “the forgotten.” -Lydia Howell
