Uwishunu.com

People have mostly forgotten that the Delaware Valley was the center of the meth world in the 70s. It was a biker thing, with actual major gang wars over control of the distribution. Real Hollywood death and explosions and all that. Suburban white kids were the market, and the meth scene had its own theme songs like Deep Purple’s HIGHWAY STAR, and Aerosmith’s version of TRAIN KEPT A-ROLLIN’! . played real loud.

Then the methamphetamine world inexplicably calmed down and mostly disappeared for 15 years or so, only to reappear like some mythical monster, laying waste to thousands of lives across the Midwest.

Who knew it was a major problem in the gay community, especially in the club scene, where the DOC had been the disco stalwart, coke?

Well apparently it is a major problem, and the Philadelphia based physical theater company, Hotel Obligado, explores the emotions and patterns of self destruction that are unleashed by this combination of rocket fuel meets Pandora’s Box.

‘Physical theater’ should bring to mind the style of storytelling popularized by Cirque De Soliel, and by Mabou Mines’ Sharon Fogarty, who is a dancer first and foremost.

Hotel Obligado’s Brendon Shank says the play is “definitely not a simple moral tale or After School Special”. Aids, the final chapter for so many that has become yesterday’s news today, plays an unavoidable role in this club / drug dynamic. If ‘moral tale’ sounds too crisp and clean, then perhaps a moral reawakening and reappraisal of a nightmare that everyone has become too cool to confront has another easy soundbite moniker that we can all rally behind.

Co-artistic director for Hotel Obligado and the show’s choreographer, Robin Marcotte says “The production at the Annenberg Center will be a night of unforgettable drama and important social commentary.” Be that as it may, I admit a certain trepidation to going out for an evening that promises to explore a certain horror in a certainly horrific manner, but according to reviews as this piece has developed over the past year, even in its more raw state the conception and realization, the performances, the music, the lighting have all received serious accolades. It will be good to experience a local company who’ve garnered such national interest.

BEAUTY IS plays for one night only, at the Annenberg Center at U of P, Friday, May 23rd, at 8 PM. Tickets are $15.

Annenberg Center
3680 Walnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19104
(215) 898-3900