As a concept piece, High Five revels in strangeness. Lolls in perverse meandering. Five preeminent playwrights, each commissioned to craft a short play, that hinges on one of the five senses. The experience in its entirety taken as a succession of playful, obtuse narratives. Imagine if Matt Lyle, Migdalia Cruz, Regina Taylor, Allison Moore and Jonathan Norton were tasked to write about produce. Lyle (Kumquat) Cruz (Banana) Taylor (Radish) Moore (Turnip) Norton (Mango). What would result? A stew? A salad? A soup? Could you eat it? How would it taste? As we might expect, each vignette tickles us with a twist. Confounds our expectations. Kicks us in the assumptions. And what is life without a revolt to the senses?
SIGHT: A Dance of Joy by Matt Lyle. Jeremy, a teenage boy, is overcome by the ecstatic discovery of a photograph he’s found in the attic. The mere image of this tantalizing, beguiling babe, has sent him reeling. He dances carelessly, overwhelmed by the special tingle each young man finds in his special way. He prances about the stage, until an interruption turns this sacred celebration into an exercise in the grotesque. Lyle has seized upon a way to transform an enchanted ritual into Creepy and the Creepazoids.
TASTE: Dinner with Dee by Migdalia Cruz. We open on a somewhat glum meal between Lydia and a guy named Dee. Right away we can tell there’s something off. They’re eating soup. Dee comments on its lack of flavor. Neither of them seems to be in a good place. Gradually we discover Lydia has more or less kidnapped the Angel of Death, because she’s not ready to go. She pretends everything’s OK, but supposedly, Dee is too polite to insist.
HEARING: What’s Heard Between Words by Regina Taylor. Violet reflects on the meaning of sounds that are preverbal. She remembers particular noises, notes, utterances, and explains how they fit into the score of human existence. What we might call a tangent on Koyaanisqatsi, What’s Heard is like a tonal mosaic. An audible patchwork quilt. It accumulates to make a point. It heads down a path, more organic than a “message” piece. In this sense, it submerges us in the thrall and comfort of a life, but also the anger and disappointment.
TOUCH: Human Resource by Allison Moore. Lennon works in an office where she has her way of doing things. She rejects accepted procedure for tasks. She’s not wrong, exactly, but she’s in steerage, and keeps rockin the boat. She’s an exceptionally nice gadfly. Max, her supervisor, calls her into his office repeatedly, where she exploits his difficulty with self-assertion. The catch is that Moore’s stamping out roaches, while the house is burning down.
SMELL: Ode to Zeb by Jonathan Norton. Far away in the milieu of blue collar sedan, we find Bourbon Scented Car Freshener Tree showing Daisy Fields SCFT the ropes. Ah, the robust and rowdy life of the SCFT. It’s filled with hi-jinks, low-jinks, booze, bros and brawling. How can we not adore the ironically putrid life of these primitive beacons of civilization? It’s like finding out Mary Poppins runs a brothel
Kitchen Dog Theater presents: High Five, playing June 9th-26th, 2022. Trinity River Arts Center. 2600 North Stemmons Freeway, Suite 180, Dallas, Texas 75207. 214-953-1055. kitchendogtheater.org