OPEN FACE
Open Face, a collection of short monologues pulled together by producer Linda Lofstrom, explores the way in which art and life transform each other. But the pieces, performed by their writers, vary wildly. According to Lofstrom’s note in the program, all of the works focus on “a personal turning point; a growth spurt; a revelation”; nearly all of the artists have chosen to tell stories that seem pulled directly from their lives. But the soul-baring is by turns poignantly revealing and embarrassingly confessional.
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In “4 or 5 or 6,” for example, Marcia Wilkie describes a yearlong love affair with a beautiful woman. Their relationship “looks so darn good,” but like the stranger’s glass eye she watches with fascination it isn’t functional. Finally she wakes up in the middle of the night, realizing, “This isn’t love. This is aesthetics.” In the story Wilkie describes herself as impulsive, deeply entangled in this maddening love, yet as a performer she’s economical, never wasting a gesture or a word. In this schism we clearly see the mature author laughing at the terrible truth of blind love, without belittling the deep feelings it creates.
If the video’s construction is clever and entertaining, Carrane’s deadpan self-deprecation is wonderfully moving. He’s pathetic without being self-absorbed or self-pitying, yet he stands outside the experience, seeing the patterns that emerge.
