The principal territory which the Artistic Blind Date lost&SOUND explores is secrets. This it holds in common, at least in part, with Static, the full-length play to which it is bonded, and it should have a particular resonance in this town.
We are, thank God, past the point where we have to hide our sexual orientation to keep our jobs (remember Perfect Arrangement?) but is it OK to say that you have a taste for bondage? Or — and this may be more to the point in DC — to say at a cocktail party that you think that vaccinations have nothing whatever to do with autism? Or that you are perfectly fine with eating genetically modified food? Or that you believe in God?
An Artistic Blind Date is a difficult thing, full of challenges that artists never encounter in their everyday lives. They must marry their art to the art of two other artists, neither of whom they know. They must create something which matches the scene of one of the full-length plays which the Source has selected this year. And the final product must be about twenty minutes in length.
lost&SOUND artists Francesca Chilcote, Veronica Lancaster and Maverick Lemons approach their objective in a couple of different ways. Lancaster carries a Plexiglas orb full of secrets close to her body; the trio approach each other, meet, touch, recoil.
Eventually the secrets spill forth; Lemons takes them. None of this is particularly powerful or on point, but eventually the artists hit upon an effective approach, which involves audience participation. I dasn’t get into details, except to assure you that you will not be required to spill any secrets which would prevent you from being nominated for a Cabinet-level position.
lost&SOUND is subdued and brief (the performance part of the show runs about thirteen minutes), but it makes its point. Some schools have “safe spaces” where students can be protected from any viewpoint which diverges from their own, but the safe space envisioned in this artistic blind date is one in which we can accept each other, warts and all.
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lost&SOUND was created and performed by Francesca Chilcote, Veronica Lancaster and Maverick Lemons at CulturalDC’s Source Festival . Reviewed by Tim Treanor.
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