Anne Bogart's SITI Company: Who Do You Think You Are

As soon as I looked at the setting on the stage, I knew the performance would be odd. My eyes were immediately drawn to the black and white bull's-eye in the center of the floor. Flanking this were two sets of unopened beer bottles. Above it all was a tangle of fluorescent lights, almost appearing to be a nest. 

The show began with a woman walking in on stage, but oddly enough the lights did not dim or alter in any way prior to her entrance. Briefly distracted by this, my attention was refocused as more people entered the scene. Their dress confused me. I could not pinpoint the period they were supposed to be from. Individually they would probably not necessarily seem out of place, but together they somehow seemed to been pulled from the past. Not one particular year or decade mind you, but maybe more of a strange average of the years between 1960 and 1990. It is difficult to explain. 

In terms of strangeness though, the set and dress were nothing compared to the performance itself. Everything was extremely disjointed. Scenes occurred in varying lengths, often with no overly apparent chronology. Between each scene, the lights would darken and an extremely loud droning sound would occur. There was a narrative, but I don't think the specifics of the story were at all important. Instead, I think the feeling it was trying to convey into the audience was more relevant. Unfortunately, I am at a loss as to how to put this feeling into words. Convoluted disjointedness begins to describe it, but it was certainly not all of it. 

During the approximate second half of the performance, things were more straightforward, but only slightly so. The story previously being conveyed was more or less abandoned, but now it was somehow being explained, at least indirectly. The brain and how it works was randomly being explained. Sometimes in technical terms, sometimes in odd human representations. The more that was explained, the more I had a bizarre sense of being more confused yet more enlightened. I thought I began to understand the first half and its relevance to the second, but now I am seeing multiple possibilities, all of which seem equally wrong and right. 

Despite my slight annoyance and obvious confusion while seeing the performance, I appreciate now how much it made me contemplate it possible meanings and how it all related to myself and the rest of the world. Perhaps that was its real purpose.