"In Event of Moon Disaster" at Mugwumpin

Mugwumpin photo by Battista Remati

OK. New stuff for a new year. New theater company (for me), Mugwumpin. I've known about them for quite a while, loved the name, and only recently figured out that several people I know are involved in the group. When I heard that they were doing this cool-sounding show about space and the moon and such, I thought I should finally check them out. The fact that it was already getting good reviews didn't hurt, either!

This is definitely not a traditional play. It's interestingly experimental, quite innovative, and very thought-provoking. We went with a couple of friends, and we all enjoyed it, though we all had trouble putting into words what we had seen and why we liked it. Nevertheless, here I go.

The Play

The title of the work derives from a never-delivered speech written for President Nixon by William Safire. It was a contingency speech in case the Apollo 11 astronauts were not able to return to Earth. Since all went well, the worst-case scenario plan was archived and largely forgotten.

But someone discovered it, and it inspired some of the Mugwumpin folks to explore themes about ambition, ambiguity, success, failure, loss, and "our place in the universe." The whole things is a mix of somewhat traditional theater, immersive performance art, dance, multimedia, and just some goofy stuff.

Roughly speaking, we have a group of five astronauts, two of whom have gone as an advance team to the moon, to be followed by the other three. Something has gone wrong, and the advance astronauts are...lost, somewhere. Maybe it's the dark side of the moon. Maybe it's somewhere else, or nowhere else. The whole time and space thing is a little fuzzy, but intentionally so. This is very much a show about coming to grips with ambiguity.

One bit that gets repeated a few times is the notion that one's reaction to discovering some kind of extraterrestrial intelligence would initially be disbelief (it's described in much more detail). Even when presented with incontrovertible proof, it seems almost inevitable that one would first say "no way!"

The play, decidedly (and intentionally!) non-linear, eventually gives us the background of the characters, their motivations for becoming astronauts and explorers, which in turn provides color to help understand their reactions to this disturbing development as their plans go awry.

The Production

It's hard to separate the play from the production here, not only because the performers have collaborated in creating both the play and its expression, but also because it's entirely possible that one could tell the same story in a very different way. And indeed, given the interactions with the audience and the space, it's quite possible that things differ at each show. But one could envision another rendition of the story that doesn't use so much dance and motion, or doesn't plunk the audience on stools in the middle of the room, doesn't surround the audience with a mix of live and recorded video, maybe doesn't even have a character who is the Moon.

There are definitely surreal elements (such as the moon-headed character who might not be a character, or even the Moon). There are silly elements, such as "Bucky," the bucket carried for most of the show by the character Delta, whose name happens to be the cue for audience members to throw the ping-pong balls they are given on entry. Why? Art!

Yet all these elements, and some effective use of light, sound, and video, combine to form a quite moving and thought-provoking exploration of themes such as the drive to explore, to be a hero, to pair up, and the need to let go. Facing uncertainty, how do we act? How do we drill to deal with inevitable problems? And how do we react when things go terribly, irrevocably wrong?

Each character answers all of these in different ways, and the show doesn't try to evaluate which are good or better or anything. It just is, ambiguities and all. And in a normal play, I would probably find such an unclear ending annoying and something of a cop-out. But I have to say that in this case it is very clearly done with intention and a lot of thought, so it's at least guided, mindful ambiguity. And in the context of the whole production, such an ending is both entirely appropriate and probably required.

The Bottom Line

The show was quite unlike anything I've ever seen before, and though it certainly has some rough bits, there is a lot of clever, thoughtful work here. I came in with little in the way of expectations, just wanting to support my creative friends. But I left with a lot of thoughts that have been percolating all day, and I'm still thinking there are more lessons for me to pick out of the memories.

So I have to say that although this is hardly my usual sort of theater production, I quite enjoyed it, and recommend it highly if you're at all curious about such an innovative and creative endeavor. Or if you just like clever people in space suits.

The show runs for another week. It was largely sold out a couple of weeks ago, but you might still be able to sneak it. They did add at least a couple of extra performances to handle the demand. So sometime between now and January 28, I recommend checking it out at Z Below in the Potrero Hill neighborhood of San Francisco.