The Tech, MIT
September 26, 1986
By Michiel Bos

THE KNEE PLAYS
Scenario by Robert Wilson
Music and words by David Byrne
Choreography by Suzushi Hanayagi
Directed by Robert Wilson

HOW FASHIONABLE CAN YOU GET? It is a question which almost inevitably comes to mind in connection with The Knee Plays, which started a two-week run at the Loeb Drama Center last weekend. With the names of playwright Robert Wilson and Talking Head David Byrne to top the roster, the production has come to Cambridge under favorable auspices if ever there were any. Fortunately, it stands up to the challenge: while not rising above expectations, it does not fall short of them either, which should be enough to make it obligatory seeing.

As their name suggests, The Knee Plays were not conceived to stand on their own; rather, they originated as interludes joining different scenes in Wilson's, well, opera The CIVIL warS. The gargantuan size of this project has thus far prohibited an integral performance, but bits and pieces have been staged in various parts of the globe. The Knee Plays, as the work's "American" section, premiered in Minneapolis during the spring of 1984. Since then Wilson's star, already highly visible abroad, has rapidly scaled the magnitudes here, not least in virtue of the American Repertory Theatre productions of Alcestis and The CIVIL warS ' Cologne' section during the past two seasons.

In this performance each of the 13 Knee Plays lasts about five minutes. In line with their framing and connecting function, all of them fit in a single narrative, but each reflects its context in The CIVIL warS.(For instance, those who saw Act III, Scene E two years ago will recognize the Civil War tents in Knee Play 10.) The storyline revolves around a series of transformations: a tree becomes a boat becomesa book becomes a tree again. The simple, yet potent cyclic structure with its archetypal schematism imparts a mythical quality to the story, and the staging is geared to respect this, with minimal sets against a neutral white background and a forceful choreography of Kabuki inspiration.

David Byrne wrote the texts, which are rhythmically read by a narrator. The dialectics of words and action is not always equally transparent, but the narrative has an understated ambiguity to it which is rather appealing. Topics vary from the deliberations of a lady in front of her wardrobe to a cadence on "We loved each otherso much…" reminiscent of the final sceneof Wilson's Einstein on the Beach.

The music, also by Byrne and here played by a brass ensemble provocatively called Les Misérables, is a peculiar blend of different idioms. Manifestly Byrne took his clues mainly from the musical traditions of the American South. But as The Knee Plays  progress, lyrical, even casual jazzy tunes gradually dissolve in more constrained, in times obsessive patterns. The process culminates in the 12th scene, where the book which was a boat which was a tree and soon will be a tree again is taken and read to a recitation on the theme "In the Future...” — at which point the play explicitly reveals itself as an allegoryof history.

Perhaps the most problematic aspect ofthe production is its timing, by Wilson's own admission the crucial ingredient of his work. It has often been stressed that Wilson's theatre, though far from lacking a cerebral texture, derives its momentummostly from its appeal to the viewer's subconscious. Its hieratic concept of space and time, its hypnotic plethora of images, its pervasive rhythm all need time to make their impact. Precisely this is lacking in a set of five-minute pieces (with occasional applause, to make things worse). The short-breathed, sequential structure of Th Knee Plays is not a particularly congenial environment for Wilson's imagery to resonate, and one has somewhat the feeling of looking at an experienced marathon runner being forced to pull a bunch ofsprints.

While this prevents The Knee Plays from reaching the intensity and scope ofthe "full" scenes of The CIVIL warS, it also forestalls to some extent the charges of obscurantism raised against Wilson's more ambitious projects. The Knee Plays are more detached; rather than absorb our mind, they enchant or tease it. As a result, one who never saw a Wilson play might want to make this the first.