STREAMING THEATER
Agitprop, Camp, Bold Theatricality
Absurdist social media romp recalls early Off-Off Broadway
BY CHRISTOPHER BYRNE
If there is an upside to theater
during the pandemic where
performances are made to be
streamed and consumed by
audience members sitting alone
or with just family, it’s that these
limitations are inspiring exciting
artistic explorations of the form.
The latest example is the provocative
and engaging “Circle Jerk,” a
live streaming performance piece
that will subsequently be available
for on-demand viewing.
Produced by the theater collective
Fake Friends, the piece tells
the absurdist story of gay white supremacists
who try to create an algorithm
that will restore the power
of an infl uencer and advance their
agenda through social media. It’s
a biting satire of our current culture,
of queer identity, and of how
information is disseminated and
becomes “truth” in our age. Over
an often-manic 105 minutes, this
three-act experience is pointed in
its criticisms and hilarious in its
cultural references that come tumbling
on top of one another. The
title is not only about group masturbation
but also about an obsessively
self-reverential group striving
STREAMING CINEMA
The Feel of Teen Life
Tyler Taormina on an untrod path in coming-of-age genre
BY STEVE ERICKSON
In 2020, it might seem that
all the possibilities of the
coming-of-age drama have
been exhausted, especially if
they take place in American suburbia.
Still, Tyler Taormina’s “Ham
on Rye” manages to carve out new
territory within it. If its main infl
uence is Richard Linklater’s
“Dazed and Confused,” “Ham on
Cat Rodriguez in “Circle Jerk.”
to amplify its own biases.
What makes this piece so fascinating,
however, is not simply the
convoluted plot or even the hilarious
multi-character portrayals by
Michael Breslin and Patrick Foley,
who conceived and created the
piece, as well as Cat Rodriguez.
(They are abetted by co-director
Rory Pelsue and dramaturg Ariel
Rye” takes that fi lm’s lack of a central
character or narrative much
further. It presents a story that
doesn’t make literal sense, being
much more interested in creating
a space for characters and viewers
alike to hang out.
The cast of “Ham on Rye” mixes
a few minor celebrities with nonprofessional
teen actors. None was
told the entire concept of the fi lm.
They only received the scenes containing
FAKE FRIENDS
Sibert.) The artful deconstruction
of theatrical forms and social
media practices — peppered with
plenty of camp and intentionally
down-at-heels production values
— say as much as the content of
the piece.
In the use of the medium, one
can draw a straight line from Artaud,
Genet, Ionesco, Albee, and
their lines. This helps explain
the convincingly dazed performances
some of them give. No
one uses drugs onscreen in “Ham
on Rye,” but it shares the spacious
drift of the fi lms Robert Altman
made while he shared his weed
stash with the cast.
The fi lm follows a suburb full of
teens, dressed up and excited in
the daytime. (The boys are wearing
old-fashioned suits.) They
Charles Ludlam — all of them
committed to reimagining the theatrical
form in their own ways — to
this piece. In a world where images
are “curated” and manipulated,
reality is up for grabs. Despite its
wit, “Circle Jerk” has the same undercurrent
of anger and rejection
of form that propelled much of the
Off-Off-Broadway movement in the
1960s and ‘70s.
Along the way, there are plenty
of gems to be savored as they burst
out in rapid-fi re pops — recalling
the pop culture camp styles of
both Ludlam and Charles Busch.
Signing on to the show’s website,
one is greeted by the phrase, “The
great jerk begins,” a trenchant jibe
at “Angels in America.” Others include
the lines that “Method acting
and fake news have the same
source: Russia,” and that “an A.I.-
generated robot-infl uenced conspiracy
theorist” can ruin people’s
lives. Creating one’s own personal
brand doesn’t make it real, the
piece points out, noting that one
can’t just claim an identity within
a group unless that group decides
you belong.
As the characters scramble to
➤ CIRCLE JERK, continued on p.31
drive through their town, heading
toward a diner called Monty’s.
Throughout the day, “Ham on Rye”
diverts its attention from person
to person. The dialogue is funny,
but it’s random: none of it builds
up to a story or leads anywhere in
particular. Then, the destination is
revealed: a prom held at the diner.
But the dancing leads them up to a
➤ HAM ON RYE, continued on p.27
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