PLEASE NOTE: this production contains nakedness and adult themes.
What happens when you mix Shakespeare with Story of O, the erotic tome of dominance and submission? You get Peak Performances latest offering, the world premiere of Richard Schechner’s “Imagining O.”
The Alexander Kasser Theater at Montclair State University celebrates its 10th anniversary with the avante-garde work dubbed exhilirating and erotic by the New York Times. Presented by East Coast Artists, a female cast runs the world premiere of “Imagining O”, which is co-directed by Benjamin Mosse. The theater gets a workout as the audience never sits in the house once. An owl (a man wearing a dress and an owl mask) leads the audience throughout the whole theater, including backstage and outside.
“I don’t get it,” whispers a woman, whom is standing onstage herself, to a man during the first scene as cast members dressed in black with thongs wrapped around their ankles mutter chants.
The thing is, you are not supposed to “get it” but rather experience it.
“There are no messages or morals,” says Schechner, “It is full of contradictions and about imagination.”
It is suggested that “O” is a book character whose story has never been completed by her author, so audiences are then exposed to different possibilities of her fate.
This is done in a very interactive way. Audiences are along for the ride through “imagination worlds” (according to performer Deborah Leiser-Moore) as they witness the story in multiple locations and are essentially part the show themselves. The women do an excellent job making the play feel very realistic. Midway through the piece the audience is split into groups, each watching different scenes simultaneously taking place throughout the venue. Later audience members disperse again, but choose their own adventures with the help of a trusty guide. This immersive theater allows for the audience to have completely different experiences.
The ladies often come in close encounters with the spectators and the movement is very well choreographed artistic expressions by Roanna Mitchell. Both sexual appreciation and sexual violence is explored and nudity conveys how comfortable the women are in their own skin.
Montclair State University graduate Kaitlin Overton performs in the show.
“We are bringing the imagining to life and thus also the fantasies we as a society are often ashamed of admitting we even have and desire. People like to see women in a sexual nature, sometimes even in a violent way, and one of the things we are doing is bringing that to life but in a poetic way.”
“It gives you freedom to imagine,” agrees actress Agape, “to allow yourself to go further with thoughts that come to your mind no matter how terrible, magical, or impossible to achieve they may seem.”
“The entire process to me as a woman has been about challenging my deep dark curiosities,” says fellow actress Caiti Lattimer.
The women prove their athleticism when they dunk into a pool of water and swim laps.
Are you ready to take the plunge and immerse yourself?
“Imagining O” continues through Saturday at the Alexander Kasser Theater at Montclair State University, 1 Normal Avenue, Montclair, N.J.; 973-655-5112, peakperfs.org.