A Season in Hell

Arthur Rimbaud

Halloween night of the Here Be Monsters’ Carnival of the Arts, included sev­eral short, strange the­atre per­for­mances, start­ing with Jesus Christ: The Lost Years. Written by Ryan Gladstone, Bruce Horak and Katherine San­ders, and per­formed by Ryan and Kate on the bare stage, the play presents a hilar­i­ous and not implau­si­ble “gospel” of the trans­for­ma­tion of Jesus, the carpenter’s son, into Jesus, the Christ, explor­ing the idea of iden­tity — self-discovery, split per­son­al­i­ties, iden­tity theft — through Jesus’ quest to iden­tify his “real” father, and through the per­for­mance itself. The two actors shared the por­trayal of Jesus as well as play­ing the other char­ac­ters, includ­ing Mary Magdalene, John the Baptist, Elvis and the three wise men — with a ver­sa­til­ity and energy that con­tributed to a unique and very funny show.

The audi­ence had about an hour to peruse the venue before we gath­ered in the bar for the next per­for­mance, an inter­pre­ta­tion of Rimbaud’s A Season in Hell by Screaming Flea. We were led out­side to a gated court­yard, where we encoun­tered the sound of furi­ous scrub­bing, a male voice growl­ing a litany of “I hate” procla­ma­tions, and an unsteady woman in a hot pink jacket and pants at half mast, all of which turned out to be part of the show. We re-entered the venue at another entrance, with two other dis­guised per­form­ers join­ing us, and then the descent truly began — absinthe-convulsing, incense-swinging, rant­ing, chant­ing, scream­ing, whis­per­ing. When it was over, I felt too dis­ori­ented and dis­turbed to stay for the other shows, so instead I walked the cold streets at mid­night, feel­ing more at peace.