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Fast TRaC Spring 2005
The Gods Are Pounding My Head In Richard Foreman's program notes for his play "The Gods Are Pounding My Head (AKA Lumberjack Messiah)," he describes two notions of Western intellectualism: humans whose ideal is the "complex, dense and cathedral-like' structure of the highly educated and articulate personality" and the opposing "pancake people," who opt instead to rely on downloadable information and both minimal individuality and intellectualism. As much as his latest (and supposedly last) creation for his forty-year old Ontological-Hysteric Theater is about this issue and the fruitless struggle of concerned individuals toward the salvation of the Renaissance mind, it is equally about each independent audience member. Due in part to little separate of stage and house (allowing the stage lights to flood into and illuminate the small audience) but far more so to the probing nature and general self-consciousness of Foreman's style of writing and directing, the spectator is acutely aware of himself watching the play. Due to the absurd, surrealist nature of the production (further enforced by Foreman's claustrophobic, indicative design), the observer is never distracted by efforts to relate to the characters onstage nor absorbed into their general realm. In creating a work so distinctly his, so...Formanian, Foreman offered his audience the opportunity to see whatever play they wanted to see and, in doing so, see one distinctly about themselves. The story (if you could call it that) of two lumberjacks (though they barely resemble one's general image of...lumberjackery) as they grapple with (or rather grope for) cosmic (though distinctly American) issues of individualism, intellectualism, law, sex, conformity, religion and Alfred Lord Tennyson, "Lumberjack Messiah" is an exercise in patience and, depending upon where you're sitting, physical strength for its audience. Without seeming to condescend or judge its audience, "Lumberjack Messiah" forces spectators to question themselves and certainly their attitude toward art. It is difficult to leave this play without feeling slightly guilty for allowing any part of yourself to be lost to the plight of the "pancake people." As the booming, judging, seemingly omnipotent "voice-of-god" forces the characters and the audience to imagine a world where the density and complexity of our fellow human beings has been replaced by nothingness; the spectator has no choice but to examine his own position in this preexisting "paper thin" world that takes little imagination to conjure. It is interesting to observe audience reactions to this piece and even to revisit it to track your own. Upon first seeing it, I was absolutely terrified by what I saw and furthermore horrified by the laughter of my fellow attendees. When I revisited it nearly three months later, circumstances in my own life and the world around me had changed significantly. I was viewing an entirely different play, one far more whimsical and playful, though significantly sadder. The stellar cast, featuring Jay Smith and T. Ryder Smith as the lumberjacks Dutch and Frenchie, Charlotta Mohlin as the siren Maude, and an impressively dedicated chorus, brings Foreman's words to life with such conviction and utter truth that one almost feels as if one's watching an acting lesson rather than a performance. Their work is so simple, beautiful and true that one never questions their spastic, stilted speech patterns or their absurd diction and merely accepts each line (there are few) as a truth. Their whimsy and utter playfulness makes what is otherwise a heartbreakingly sad and entirely absurd play fun and completely natural. Their work is organic and original, free of social expectations and conditioning. It is a paradox that Foreman has so often publicly stated his hatred for the theatre when his work for the stage so obviously betrays a passion for the form that goes beyond mere enjoyment. Foreman seems to savor the sheer playfulness of play and is completely aware of the conventions of theatre arts because without that knowledge he couldn't possibly experiment with them so effectively. In an interview with PBS' EGG arts show, Foreman once said that his task "has always been to teach people how to be energized amidst a world that doesn't work and not to be depressed by it." In his latest metaphysical experiment, Foreman succeeds in that goal for both his characters and his audience. Managing to be sad and truly terrifying while remaining whimsical and undeniably hopeful, "The Gods Are Pounding My Head (AKA Lumberjack Messiah" succeeds in initiating debate and causing audiences to briefly flee the safe realm of their own ideology.
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