Review: RSVP

Critic's Pick

Let’s get this clear at the outset: This is not a review of RSVP. It’s a report, with little critical evaluation, describing a theater exercise devised by Satori Group, honed into a manageable “script” by Satori member Anthony Darnell and presented at six café tables on the sidewalk in front of Know Theatre’s Jackson Street home.

It can’t be a review because RSVP isn’t something an audience can see or hear from the outside. It’s something that an individual attendee/participant does, something that has to be individually experienced. There are no actors, nor is there a traditional audience (that is, rows of chairs facing a platform).

(Photo: Deogracias Lerma)

So actually it’s not a play at all. But it’s so fine-tuned to the kind of out there theatrical experimentation that ignites Fringe festivals that it might be the “fringiest” thing in this year’s Fringe.

You arrive. You are seated at one of the café tables. Your co-experiencer is seated facing you. There are some common items on the table: A carafe of water, two small glasses, a mug containing a rolled up piece of paper and some marking pens, a Polaroid instant camera.

The cafe’s head waiter, who just happens to be the director of RSVP, Satori member Andrew Lazarow, instructs you to put on one of the audio headsets laying on the table.

Soon you begin hearing one of a pair of coordinated sound tracks. One track has a man’s voice, the other a woman’s. But gender isn’t germane. It doesn’t matter which you hear.

Over the next 30 minutes you’ll be instructed to do and say a series of quite simple things: to pour water, to stand, to sit, to look about you and to look closely at your tablemate, to join hands, to ask and answer questions, to offer greetings, to read something from the paper on the table, to write something and present it to your partner. What’s expected of each participant is just what a literal translation of the phrase RSVP asks — that you free up and allow yourself to respond openly to the series of simple stimuli that the taped instructions set up.

What can happen to you is what Darnell says Satori intends to happen: Each pair of participants, oblivious to their surroundings, will achieve a moment of direct, intimate communication in a public place. What it all means is what it will mean to any individual who approaches it with open anticipation and a willingness to acquire a new sort of experience.

No two responses are ever likely to be the same. One thing it might mean is a realization of the large truth bound up in a small phrase spoken by one of the taped voices: “You have eternal life in this moment.”

Opening night was not hitchless. They had some problems with some of the headsets and the clash of street noise. One couple, who happen to be friends, left in mid-cycle, perhaps to pursue their intimate moment elsewhere.

Unlike Fringe shows that have a single performance at an announced curtain time, RSVP repeats its 30-minute, 12-at-a-time cycle over a two- or three-hour period.

— Tom McElfresh

Comments

[Michael Antonio]

Depressing. All these laurels for a show that blatantly rips off the British troupe Rotozazza's piece Etiquette.

I hope the lawyers of that troupe discover such blatant appropriation. And shame on reviewers who so immediately rave about a "singular" experience and ingenuity of a play currently touring the world with a different group that originated it.

An artist doesn't simply give "inspired by" credit. They actually have inspiration.

[Drew]

Wow. For those who are interested (and ignorant, as I was) as to Rotozaza's "Etiquette," take a look at this video;

http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=7303606d44afbf271c207f47683d62a888a266cc

If you've participated in Satori's RSVP, you'll definitely notice some parallels. This isn't meant to "debunk" or "expose" anything, as the form is definitely worth experiencing (especially within a fringey atmosphere), but Satori really should have given credit where credit's due.

[Andrew]

In reply to Michael Antonio: Satori group isn't "blatantly ripping off" Rotozazza's Etiquette: they have express permission from Rotozazza to develop this piece using the same conceptual framework as Etiquette.

Satori has given credit to Etiquette in all of their press materials.

Mr. Antonio is confusing the issue here: denigrating Satori's efforts in this way is like saying Don't Make Me Pull this Show Over is invalid because other people have done musicals before; or saying that Inner: City is invalid because other artists have created prerecorded walking tours that blend fact and fiction.

Shows are a combination of form and content. And the content of RSVP is lovely, engaging, and worth experiencing, especially within its unique presentation.

Art doesn't have to be the first of its kind to be beautiful.

[Ant Hampton]

Very flattering to hear Etiquette has inspired someone else, but unfortunately i'm unaware of anyone having contacted us "to develop this piece using the same conceptual framework as Etiquette." And depressing, yes, that so much seems to be the same. Two people, two glasses of water. We'll be in touch!
www.rotozaza.co.uk