Lucas Krech’s impressive lighting design, and Jeremy Zuckerman’s terrific sound-score are perfectly realized creations that are as much a part of the dance as the exchanges between Levy and Aline. Both lighting and score provide both staging and directional movement. At one point, Levy actually solos and impressive interaction with a segment of Zuckerman’s swooshing sound-piece, that is redolent of the intensely deafening and demonic sound effects in the movie the Exorcist.

Director Susi Damilano and her design team — Bill English (sets), Lucas Krech (lights), Lorin King (sound) and Bree Hylkema (costumes) — keep the action moving at a crisp pace while allowing the actors plenty of time to establish dimension.

It begins no different than a gallery piece. A few objects hang in space. We, the audience, mill about looking and interacting. Sound and video play out of phase. Found sound and found footage connect in this room for the first time, or reconnect after a long separation. Sometimes harmonious, sometimes dissonant, it soon becomes clear these are intentional accidents.

Not accidents at all in fact, the objects move and interact with the audience. Small clear plastic domes, three of them, with speakers mounted inside. Just big enough of two or three heads to fit inside and listen. These speakers tell a different story than the words coming from the video. Sometimes profound, sometimes mundane monologues against a background of war.

She emerges from the darkness of the crowd. A face a little too intense to be a spectator.

Somewhere the focus shifts. No longer mere installation we are watching a dance. This is a dance between video, music and human form. She starts simply. From a stare building to crescendo in writhing explosions, a body at war with itself. A self trying to contain the destructive power of the atomic bomb exploding around it.

This is Gadget

A performative installation conceived and designed by David Szlaza. Gadget explores the emotional center of the creation of the atomic bomb and its aftermath.

Gadget is being produced as part of FoolsFury‘s three week ensemble festival. Music is by Matt:Matt with movement by Kira Kirsch. Gadget runs approximately 1 hour. Performs through this Saturday June 27th.

The company’s description:

“GADGET” is an interactive media installation that is intended to simultaneously bring humanity and humanness to the collaborators of the Manhattan Project through original and archival interviews while provoking the audience to question their own understanding and opinions of the creation of the atomic bomb and its effect on society. Through a combination of media and live performance, the installation aims to create an environment of learning and experience for the audience that is unique and individualized. By allowing manipulation of the material and the ability to choose what they are looking at and listening to, an audience member can begin to exercise his or her autonomous democratic rights and develop their own sense of consciousness around the making of the atomic bomb.

Like a magician pulling a freshly hatched chick from a sack, TJT’s production transforms Allen’s humdrum script into something fresh and almost substantial. Director Nancy Carlin keeps the action ticking along and smoothly builds toward the climax. The trompe l’oeil–inspired two-dimensionality of Nina Ball’s set design, with its flat, painted surfaces depicting the furniture in the Pollacks’ house, underscores Allen’s thematic interest in illusion. Meanwhile, lighting designer Lucas Krech’s use of shadows and blackouts imbues the play with a much-needed dose of theatricality.

The visual precision of the production – which receives assists from Lucas Benjaminh Krech’s lights and Keiko Shimosato Carreiro’s 19th- and early 20th-century costumes – is important because the look is nearly as important as the content. Or maybe I should say there are as many visual echoes as there are auditory in Parks’ play.

Rose directs with his usual bloody precision, Cheri Prough DeVol designed the effective set, Amanda Aldridge outdid herself in shrouding the actors, and Cindi A. Raebel managed the stage, which, I assume, meant keeping the blood supply flowing.
However, the technical stars of this show were the lighting by Lucas Krech and the sound designed by Bobby Beck. Very, very effective.

Director Hayley Finn has wrapped Cook’s script in a contemporary package that is an interesting cross between naturalism and high style. As such, the characters move and interact very unaffectedly in the love scenes between Lilah and Brock, while Susan’s public appearance speeches are done almost entirely in strobe lights, to simulate camera flashes. Finn uses this dichotomy to great effect throughout, relying on strong design to keep the scenes crisp.

Robin Vest’s innovative scenic design is a fairly realistic one-bedroom apartment, with some handy flourishes that facilitate the other scenes. When Susan is on an airplane, a small circular picture frame on the wall next to her lights up to simulate an airplane window. Aided by light designer Lucas Benjaminh Krech’s cleverly placed lights, Finn’s team manages to establish different locations very well. Lilah collects old photos, and the walls of her apartment are covered with these framed pictures. Vest and projection designer luckydave create some nice effects by projecting small images, like Brock’s blog or photos taken of Susan, into the frames.