oedipus the king, at your server

Anyone who knows the Tweedster can tell you that he is constantly fussing about the tendency to turn to the Ancient Greeks for guidance in times of war, not so much because it's a bad idea, but it takes a lot of careful crafting to aptly corollate Creon, say, with George W. Bush, or libation bearers with the recent widows in Iraq that CNN loves to show every night.

Last night I saw The Best's first performance of their "<OEDI Cycle>" at the Ohio Theatre, OEDI @:US (read it over a couple of times, you'll get it), a multimedia, online, pop-music infused circus.  In their words:

"The Best utilizes racous rock music, dynamic dancing and diverse digital techniques  to riff on The Homeland's obsessive pop-cultural globilazation and aggressive global militarization."

Needless to say, I was intrigued.  Could OEDI be my theatrical savior?  The basic premise: the members of the defunct band The Best have come together on some sort post-apocalyptic American Idol to decide where their figurehead OEDI  ("Organically Enabled Digital Interface," now confined to an orb of digital information) will finally come to rest (a server).  The setting in the not toodistant past/not toodistant future certainly makes one chuckle at the notion of world politics and power will be decided by votes for singers, and the potential critique of the multimedia frenzy that is politics as well as America's obsession with reality TV at the cost of political awareness.  When considered for a minute, it's not all that far-fetched.

But instead of taking a strangle hold on these topics, The Best devolves into petty squabbles and ego-tripped divadom, which, although accurate for Monday night primetime on Fox, really doesn't go anywhere in the performance at the Ohio.  A cast of incredibly talented performers, quirky and fun characters, and media-savvy designers and operators can't really draw the audience to the socio-political message they are apparently aiming for.  By the time the theatre is threatened with goverment-sanctioned annihilation, it's difficult to go along with it, and OEDI's importance and integrity are lost in the details.

I applaud Eamonn Farrell and company for such an ambitious and entertaining evening, and it is certainly worthwhile to see the company play with all their toys, but instead of reflection upon the larger meanings, I only felt the artificiality that already floods American Idol, CNN, and MTV.

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