CARNIVAL KNOWLEDGE
Time Out New York
March 9-16, 2000
CARNIVAL KNOWLEDGE
Created and Performed by Rob Faust and Paola Styron
Dir. Faust
Prod. supervised by Jay Presson Allen
Flea Theater
(see Off-Off Broadway)
Whole branches of the theater ought to be paying royalties to Julie Taymor. Not only has the Lion King director-designer afforded countless puppeteers newfound respect and employment, she's also made the world safe for masks. Take CARNIVAL KNOWLEDGE, the new show playing at the Flea Theatre (which is fast becoming the most eclectic presenting house in New York). This sweet, amusing work doesn't stop short of incorporating a mask or two - masks are its raison d'être.
The piece, supervised by the fiery play and screenwriting pro Jay Presson Allen (TRU, DEATHTRAP) is the creation of Paola Styron and Rob Faust, who are about as physically opposite as can be. The petite Styron is a boneless rag doll, lithe and rubbery. Faust, meanwhile, has the physique and face of a Greco-Roman wrestler. Together, they don and dispense with roughly three dozen papier-mâché masks (all made by Faust) over the course of the 80-minute show - mugs with permanent smirks, unshakable grins and buckteeth. Many of the early shorter vignettes are one-joke affairs tied to the disguise's expression, but more often than not, the joke is pretty good.
The show culminates in three extended sketches. The longest is "Burden of Paradise," a pas de deux between Styron's wispy child of nature and Faust's curious jungle cat. A balletic tug-of-war between nature and civilization, the piece is often hypnotic, even if its underlying intention remains a bit foggy. "Margie" is New Orleans-born Faust's tribute to the loving black maid who helped to raise him. I could have done without the long, sentimental introduction to the segment, but the sight of Faust dancing in a full Margie bodysuit and mask was something to behold. Last is "Gingerella," a touching ballroom showdown between Styron, as a slight old man, and Faust, as a strapping ox of a girl. Reportedly inspired by Fred Astaire, if perhaps owes more to the hilarious tango between Jack Lemmon and Joe E. Brown in "Some like it Hot."
Ironically, the show's strongest and funniest moment on the night I saw it came not from the performers, but from two audience members who were enlisted to wear and act out the roles embodied by a couple of masks--one the face of an insufferable glad-hander, the other an evil-eyed superbitch. Though CARNIVAL KNOWLEDGE verges somewhat on the twee, the success of these two spirited novices is testimony to the potent entertainment to be found in Faust's handiwork.
-Robert Simonson
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Read more about CARNIVAL KNOWLEDGE online!
Theatermania.com - interview with the show's creators
Pictures from the star-studded opening night on Playbill On-Line:
Page One | Page Two | Page Three
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