“A violent and concentrated action is a kind of lyricism: it summons up supernatural images, a bloodstream of images, a bleeding spurt of images in the poet’s head and in the spectator’s as well.” —Antonin Artaud in The Theater and Its Double
Maher’s Lehrer comes across at first as the quintessence of loneliness. But he’s not completely solitary. Before long he’s joined by his housemate and amiable doppelganger, Jim Lehrer II—apparently not an imaginary construct but a flesh-and-blood person. Lehrer II certainly bleeds, anyway, making his entrance with a cut on his head, a torn suit, and a red-stained shirt. A playwright who’s just attended the premiere of his first staged script, this second Lehrer explains that he had to fight his way free of audience members bent on tearing him to bits in a fit of bacchic frenzy. Not exactly what Artaud meant by the Theater of Cruelty, but not so far off either.
Through 3/12: Thu-Sat 8 PM, Sun 3 PM Chopin Theatre 1543 W. Division 773-897-5089theateroobleck.com $15, “more if you’ve got, free if you’re broke”
