REVIEW: A visually engaging experimental piece plays the downstairs at La Mama

Take Me To Dollywood is wild and interesting

Molly Serenduke

Harris Singer's Take Me To Dollywood at La Mama is many things, but it is definitely not boring.

At its core, the experimental play is about Harris Singer, exploring themes of sexuality, love, pain, self-discovery and self-preservation. The director, Luke Wisniewski, and the design team work well to bring Singer's unique vision to life in a consistently visually engaging way.

The piece has no shortage of interesting ideas. Singer refuses to let even a short scene go by without something surprising happening. The actors aid the piece not just by delivering interesting performances, but by doing a lot to adapt the ever evolving set. The overall evolution of the stage is vibrant, colorful and engaging.

I like a play that fights for your attention with all that it has. It's disappointing to see something that at its center doesn't feel like it needs to battle for your attention. Take Me To Dollywood screams for your attention, briefly even using pornographic projections.

The piece moves at a solid pace. One strength is that the barrage of interesting ideas visually and otherwise all fit in line with one another organically to make a piece that feels like an extension of Harris. It does not feel like the amalgamation of many disparate, contrived ideas, but rather a piece true to itself.

To say that this play is indulgent is an understatement. It's by design almost hyper-indulgent, but even these elements are nicely integrated, offer moments of surprising turns, and in the end, adhere to the piece's purpose and genre.

There were several moments throughout that felt as though everything, even the characters themselves, were in service of creating some visual element, and while the visuals were consistent and engaging, if the heart of this piece is a visual spectacle, then the characters, at times, don't really live and breathe.

Take Me To Dollywood is an interesting, engaging and worthwhile night at the theater. You walk away knowing that Harris is a talent and that this is a strong group of artists doing something weird, wild and unique.