For those who may have missed Deke Weaver’s latest chapter in his
“life-long” multi-media theater project (September 23-27 in the UI
Stock Pavilion) or for those who did see it but are not elephants and may have forgotten it, here is the 15-minute descriptive run-down as
best as I can recall.
By 2050, climate change and population growth “will push half the
species on the planet into extinction.” This is in the program notes and is probably all you need to know. We sat in rows of backless
concrete seating.
Athletic types swung around the railings and jogged in place, which — despite the energy exerted — looked more comfortable than the backless concrete seating.
A man dressed as the elephant Hero (Weaver) was interviewed by a radio personality, Larry (Gary Ambler) about his (the elephant’s) murder in South Dakota in 1916. The conversation turned to cheese. I mean, things were said, but cheese actually became a topic. “Fear changes the brain,” Hero said. I jotted this down.
The audience was led, holding hands like elephants attaching tails to trunks, into the huge pavilion space, to be seated on straw bales, also backless. Free water was distributed to the audience. A white papier-mache elephant descended into the center of the sawdust-covered floor as we walked in.
A woman holding up a sign reading “SHUTTLECOCK” walked around the auditorium. The athletic types kicked around soccer balls in the sawdust. Six huge video screens displayed various diagrams and video snippets, including three ways for a human to mount an elephant to ride. I jotted this down as well.
A well-amplified speaker described various aspects of elephant life and death and inevitable extinction. The story was told several times how, in 1916, “bored Lutherans” in Elkton, SD, shot Hero, blinded him, and eventually killed him.
There was a story about someone becoming queen. There was a queen. There was a study discussed about “Trends, Marco Polo, and the Uncanny.” There was another excellent line from this research: “Sorcery is unreliable, but the fear of sorcery is a great power.” I may have jotted that down incorrectly, but you get the idea.
As a kind of pre-finale moment, another athlete, called the Flip-Flopper (Aaron Austin), did cartwheels and backflips across the length of the pavilion.
Two sopranos, an alto, and a guitar folk artist sang songs at various junctures, including a song much repeated about how everything is better with butter.
Finally, a 15-foot tall mechanical puppet elephant, operated by the athletes, ambled from the wings. There was a curtain call, followed by the cast singing the butter song again.
Oh, yes. In the radio interview segment, the interviewer asks Hero at one point, “Who cares?” On the night I saw the show, this drew the evening’s biggest, perhaps only, laugh.
Let me know what I forgot.