What can be said about something as bizarre, unexpected, and unapologetically ridiculous as AntiCone, the performance art spectacle written, produced, and directed by Tia Shearer and Natasha Mirny (Happy Theater) currently on offer at Baltimore Theatre Project?
At some point in one’s life – generally when one visits friends who have, in recent years, become parents – one is approached by a group of little kids and breathlessly invited to “see a play they’ve just written.” Naturally, when one is obliged to observe the performance, one finds that the “play” hasn’t so much been “written” as giddily thrown together in a matter of minutes thanks to the dizzying imaginations and short attention spans of its players. There’s a lot of emphatic shouting and nonsensical proclaiming in silly voices, not to mention plenty of loud and seemingly-random noises, and a good deal of pantomiming, face-making, and stomping around. The full-on display of senselessness and absurdity is made tolerable (and perhaps even delightful) by the unbridled enthusiasm of its creators. The audience might have no idea what’s happening or what it all means, but the performers certainly seem to, which is enough to make the whole exercise worthwhile in the end.
These words could just as easily be applied to AntiCone, and why not? Shearer and Mirny have backgrounds in children’s theatre, especially as it applies to encouraging non-verbal forms of communication. Not only that, but in the show’s program (which, like the play itself, boasts a torrent of cone-related puns) and during the Q&A session following the production, the creators freely admit that this whole thing began as an exercise in “open exploration to find out what a bright orange traffic cone has to say.” In attempting to find some larger truth in this piece, they allowed themselves to very literally “clown around.”
But in these recent years of tyrants – and, more specifically, their megalomaniacal bloviations regarding walls and borders – the premise has evolved into something which seems far more politically revolutionary… a funhouse mirror which cartoonishly distorts our reflections while showing us the vital importance of our own agency, our collective capacity to determine our own morality through decisive action.
Somewhere along the line, Shearer and Mirny chose to marry this strange exercise to Sophocles’ Antigone. (Indeed, a brief summation of the classic play is, helpfully, on display in the lobby.) However, those looking for straight narrative or thematic lines to draw between these two works may come away feeling wholly perplexed. There are, yes, elements of choosing radical action and defiance in the face of institutional injustice and dictatorship; these are explored so broadly and weirdly, though, that it might serve the theatergoer better to simply go in with fresh eyes and no expectations whatsoever. In doing so, they may find a bewildering yet enormously engaging display on offer, one whose inherent profundity is best treated as something light, whimsical, and almost incidental rather than a work groaning beneath the weight of classic Greek theatre and its historical significance.
Will the manic playground sensibilities of this presentation resonate with everyone? Doubtful. Like a lot of art deemed confusing, this would appear to be a thing more intended to be experienced than properly “understood.” But Shearer and Mirny gleefully swing for the fences with this endeavor, and they’re to be applauded for that.
Running Time: 45 minutes with no intermission
AntiCone, a Happy Theater production, plays through June 26, 2022 at Baltimore Theatre Project— 45 W. Preston Street in Baltimore, MD. For tickets call the box office at (410) 752-8558 or purchase them online.
