The Bad Play (1991-92)

More photos

The Bad Play muses on the surrealistic nature of American theatrical realism, and also on American suburban life as seen from its closest sphere of influence in Latin America.
A collaboration of choreographer/director Stephanie Skura, who grew up in an American suburb, and playwright Ana Maria Simo, raised in Cuba with visions of American suburban life cut from Life Magazine, it was a opportunity for these two artists to uproariously dig into a phantasmagorical re-do of Skura's teenage years, while taking opportunities to apply experimental dance/theater methods to Simo's dreamy script.

Subverting the conventions of American theatrical realism, The Bad Play is replete with seduction, hypochondria, teenage sexuality, obviously fake fights, and unmotivated sex between unlikely partners, as well as strategies such as inappropriate emotion, random accents that come and go, grossly exaggerated gesture, inaudible mumbling, inappropriate song and dance interludes, nonsenical changes of climate, and illogical blocking. Along the way, we get the moment of truth scene, the deathbed scene, the mistaken identiy scene, and the scene where the audience knows important things the characters don't know.

With hilarious set and props by Jamie Leo, lights by by the inimitable Mary Louise Geiger, sound by long-time skua collaobrator Guy Sherman/Aural Fixation, and costumes by the brilliant Liz Prince.
Video Cast: Josie Chavez (role created by Karen Langevin), Eric Diamond, Jennifer Green, Saskia Noordhoek Hegt, Barrie Raffel,and Scot Willingham (role created by Karl Anderosn).

Premiered at Performance 122, NYC and performed at Dance Theater Workshop, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, and Zurich Theater Festival, Switzerland.

Video(full-length, 1:24)

Aristotle must be having conniptions. the three unities are down the toilet just for starters in The Bad Play, in which Skura and author Ana Maria Simo exalt the inappropriate and unreasonable, the lurid and the tasteless." Burt Supree, Village Voice, a Voice Choice

"A terribly entertaining, truly terrible evening in the theater...A messy, multilayered, brilliant skewering of American family...It's a delibetately messed-up event, one of the all-time most compellingly loopy, seductively wacky theatricalizations ever presented on purpose. You just can't take your eyes off it... Like most successful theater -- -- and this is most successful -- it's a multilayered affair. You have the choice of putting your mind on idle and wallowing in the silliness or sticking it in overdrive and delving into the layers of ironic cross-cultural commentary that are never far below the surface. Either way, it's a giddy ride." MIke Steel, Minneapolis Start Tribune, quoting Village Voice.

"Skura's direction is just wonderful from beginning to end, making clear by comparison the inferiority of most new-form directors...Instead of massacring the delicate script, Skura inflates it, tricks it, ornaments and violates it Using her trademark brand of signal code on mercury movement style, she choreographs the spoken text so that each scene is differently staged, but the emotional content is highlighted by the differences...the drunken cinematic element of the suburban fantasy is beautifully injected by Jamie Leo's whimsical and thoughtful set design." Sarah Schulman, Outweek

"Not least among its virtues, The Bad Play is sparklng evidence that the American avant-garde theater movement of the last 20 years has come of age and located its own voice or lexicon of communication."
David Kaufman, Downtown