Live Arts review: BANG
Three wild and gorgeous clowns take on the porn establishment and break free in BANG. It's hilarious, says Toby Zinman
How to have your banana and eat it too. OR
How to parody a sex show with a sex show. OR
How three wild and gorgeous clowns take on the porn establishment and break free.
In BANG, Charlotte Ford (who conceived the show), Sarah Sanford and Lee Etzold find themselves onstage with no idea why they're there; but the audience knows why it's there: to see a show. A sign above the actors' heads lights up: "SEX SHOW." So they proceed to provide one. And, under Emmanuelle Delpech's direction, it's hilarious.
There is the inevitable banana. And the inevitable gender politics/theater politics (consider the gazer — us — and the gazee — them). And chocolate sauce. And an orgasm chair. And some audience participation that miraculously avoids embarrassing anybody.
The astonishing little movie at the end, doubling the voyeurism, should have ended the show because it gives us the naked (literally and figuratively) joy that is the point. Why compromise that by bringing the show back indoors with the three of them wearing silly costumes again? It seemed to me that BANG is about uninhibited pleasure — rip off your clothes, fly out the door and enjoy yourself.
---Toby Zinman
BANG at Christ Church Neighborhood House, 20 N. American St. Sunday at 6 p.m., Monday-Wednesday at 8 p.m. Tickets: $18-35.























