Danger Signals
About the show
New Ohio Theatre and Built For Collapse present a searing exploration of traumatic brain injuries, the medical history of lobotomies, and western culture’s insatiable desire to control and colonize. More…
A unique collaboration between the award-winning New York based theater company Built for Collapse, led by Iranian-American director Sanaz Ghajar, British playwright Nina Segal, and pop musician Jen Goma. A multi-disciplinary fantasia that questions the cost of ambition.
"An ambitious devised piece that explores lobotomies, colonialism, and the long road to recovery after brain trauma...It doesn’t take long to see that this subversive piece has a delicious sense of irony...In many ways it is messy, yet Built for Collapse stitches all of these elements together while keeping its audience engaged through to the end—I’m in awe...Meant for the theatergoer looking for an out-of-the-box experience, rather than something that's easily digestible." Full Review
"Much of Built for Collapse's collaborative meditation on brain dysfunction is appropriately disorienting...It's unapologetically experimental...with three disparate narratives that touch on the most complex organ in our bodies...'Danger Signals' is best for adventurous theatergoers who aren't looking for coherence. Even if you scratch your head, the play keeps your synapses firing." Full Review
"As the play progresses, it veers off into a feminist discourse on the power and privilege of men and deconstructs text, intention, and characterization...The strong feminist discourse backfires because Johanson not only plays the best-conceived roles, which are male, but he is also a terrific actor...When the women shunt him off the stage, instead of the feeling that history is finally correcting itself, there is a sense of loss...Its theatrical experience has the bite of a Chihuahua rather ... Full Review
See it if you want to see something vibrant and intelligent. It has something to say and it knows how to say it.
Don't see it if you dislike non-linear narrative structures or require a play to hold your hand and concisely explain itself to you
Also Violent. Disparate. Exhilarating. ... Read more Read less
See it if you don't need a fully coherent story, just strong visuals & compelling performers.
Don't see it if you have little tolerance for theater experiment that leaves lots of loose ends for you to tie together yourself (or not)
Also The visual design in this piece is strong, & I love its central stage ... Read more Read less
See it if You want to challenge yourself with something unusual. Interesting themes expressed using nontraditional nonlinear techniques.
Don't see it if If you expect a plot or consistent characters. Or a full evening's activity - running time under an hour.
See it if You are deeply enamoured of the creative, downtown, experimental style in your theater, and are not disappointed when it fails.
Don't see it if You prefer that there be one story, or if multiples, that they contribute to each other and produce an evening you can throw a rope around.
See it if you love experimental non-linear, but well-constructed theatre, unafraid to explore ways of expressing ideas in unique ways
Don't see it if you hate all of the above; If you fear your 'this is what I like' paradigm being challenged
Cast & Creatives (11)
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