Man:Solo is a one-person show run through Bedlam Theater. I say "one-person show" to eschew the gendered-ness of the oft-used "one-man." But tonight, at Access Theater in SoHo, audiences were privileged a layered understanding of one man, unafraid to "unspool," a term he used, himself.
"The Dork Knight," it was called; Jason O'Connell's act and concurrent narrative. The world, as he has experienced it--through art and movies and love and Batman--all swirled in uninhibited cacophonies: he, their receiver; he, their interpreter; he, them.
O'Connell became his story, rather than get lost in the sentimental self, as one often does. He rendered his experiences palpable--through body and voice and emotion. The abstract resonated; audiences felt it. He allowed it to be felt.
Those who make Bedlam possible "believe that innovative use of space can collapse aesthetic distance and bring the audience into direct contact with the dangers and delicacies of life," according to a donation envelope I found on my folding chair.
One man's entire life may seem distant, separate, too innovative, aesthetic for the quotidian. If anything, Bedlam's uses of space remind us that no production is too "out there"; as the humility of this studio room combs your beard, the art warms your sideburns. it is the temporal of the temples; let it massage for an hour or so. read more