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The sane and not so sane will collude and collide when Boston University College of Fine Arts' InCite Arts Festival takes over Olney Theatre Center on Saturday and Sunday. Of course, mental illness is no laughing matter, but in the opera "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat," it's a crackup. And what about when another mental patient, a conductor by trade, berates his make-believe symphony by calling it a "chimphany" in the play "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour?"
This craziness couldn't have happened without OTC artistic director Jim Petosa's decision to bring the festival to the region after its two successful runs in New York City. Petosa has a tendency to explain InCite's intentions in lofty, lengthy terms, using words like neuroscience, cognitive senses and a compendium of performances. Suffice it to say, the festival is designed to explore the relationships between performers when the arts, science and politics coalesce. And that is just part of InCite's mission; the event also gives the university's students, faculty members and alumni the opportunity to work together to offer "avid theater fans an opportunity to experience works that are rarely produced on stage," Petosa points out.
InCite hit the "rarely produced" jackpot in choosing "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour." Petosa estimates the 72-minute production has been performed just a few times since André Previn and Tom Stoppard created it in the late 1970s. And it's no wonder, since Previn devised the play to include a full symphony orchestra few companies can afford. But with Boston University (BU) actors and its Chamber Orchestra at his disposal, Petosa knew he could make it happen.
"Every Good Boy" is set circa 1977 in a mental institution in the former Soviet Union. Two inmates share a cell: Ivanov is a genuine mental patient who spends his days conducting his make-believe orchestra, and Alexander is a political dissident who won't be released from the institution until he confesses to mental instability. Granted, the location may seem a tad dated, but the idea of incarceration without a trial – think Guantanamo Bay - is still a fact of life. Fortunately, "Every Good Boy" doesn't get bogged down making too sharp a political point. Instead, it includes plenty of jokes, many designed to be appreciated by the onstage orchestra members. Real musicians may have experienced a crazy conductor like Ivanov, especially when the mental patient complains to his so-called orchestra that "the violin section is to violin playing like [Jascha] Heifetz is to water polo."
The lines between what is real and what is imagined are eventually blurred. If this orchestra is a figment of the crazy guy's imagination, why is the audience seeing the players and hearing the sublime sounds? What's more, with Alexander's young son begging him to come home, why doesn't the supposedly sane guy just confess to being crazy so he can return to his family?
Orchestra members weren't exempt from working outside their comfort zone either.
"I had to ask the orchestra to be part of the play," Petosa explains. "In the top of the play, they have to mime that they playing [their instruments]. They aren't used to that. But as they continued, suddenly they were actors."
Like Ivanov, music has overtaken Dr. P in "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat." Dr. P suffers from a rare yet real disorder: an inability to recognize objects. Dr. P talks to a parking meter, thinking it's a person, and it only gets worse when he tries to yank his wife's head off her shoulders, believing it is his hat. "I try to explain away his problems," notes opera singer Jessica Stavros who plays Dr. P's wife, which turns out to be the best solution for a real malady. Michael Nyman's 1986 opera is based on a case study by neurologist Oliver Sacks.
Dr. P may have a hard time finding his shoes, when it comes to singing anything Robert Schumann wrote, he retains his perfect pitch.
"We think that abstraction [such as understanding music] would be the first thing to go," Petosa points out, but for the patient in Sacks' essay, it is understanding tangible objects.
InCite also features events in the District. Painter and Boston University associate professor Richard Raiselis will lead a discussion on "Color and Light" at the Phillips Collection on Friday. The festival concludes Monday with the Boston University Symphony Orchestra's performance of the world premiere of Nolan Gasser's "Cosmic Reflection" at the Kennedy Center. The work celebrates the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope's first year in orbit.
What with all the seriousness, silliness and a Gamma-ray Space Telescope, the InCite Festival is out-of-sight.
"The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat" will take the stage at 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, and "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour" at 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at Olney Theatre Center, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Road, Olney. Tickets are $38. Call 301-924-3400 or visit olneytheatre.org.
InCite Arts will also present "Color and Light," a reception and gallery talk with painter and BU associate professor Richard Raiselis from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Friday at The Phillips Collection, 1600 21st St. NW, Washington, D.C. Admission is free, but reservations are recommended; visit bu.edu/cfa/incite.
The Boston University Symphony Orchestra will perform Nolan Gasser's "Cosmic Reflection" at 8 p.m. Monday in The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Concert Hall, 2700 F St. NW, Washington D.C. Limited tickets on the first and second tiers are available for $20. Call 202-467-4600 or visit kennedy-center.org.
