Do not be turned off by the not-so enticing area of Genesee Street where the Dnipro building stands. Cameras are rolling and you can watch your vehicle remain motionless from the Ukrainian basement bar while ordering a drink from charming volunteer bartender Steven. Born in Germany, raised in Brazil and now residing in Buffalo, Steven is good preparation for the cultural and technological enlightening that is "Architect". He pours every drink generously and tends to forget the ice and soda.
"Architect" is third in a non-narrative trilogy by Dan Shanahan who designs productions around the specific Buffalo buildings. The trilogy marks three rifts in Ukrainian culture and mythology. The first production, "Muriel Goes Walking", represented a spiritual break in Christianity and Paganism. The second, "Terminus", related to the self imposed famine or the natural break. His final production, "Architect", contains distilled ideas about the technological break and Chernobyl.
"Architect" is a brave exploration of experimental sound combined with mechanical and biological images manipulated and taken to extreme levels. The set design is a grid of cables, latex, and voice overs. Flesh-like latex is strewn across the floor, interlaced by a woman tied to her chair and encasing a child experiencing a hellish morning stretch, representative of a biological world of rejuvenation.
Good and evil, sexual struggle and release, crisis with identity and a bond with technology is projected outward from the central character. Free will is removed from the man. He lives inside of an imposed system, fully aware that at the end of each cable, there is a finite moment. Shanahan states, “I wanted to create iconic images that are open to interpretation. I am interested in mood and texture.” When a simple morning routine becomes obsessive, a young woman flosses her gums away, removing any nurturing aspect of reality and leaving behind a nightmarish existence.
“Everything within the set is just very controlled,” Shanahan states. Every movement is perfectly timed and balanced with the environment. The man taps a cable and a specific moment in time emerges, across stage, cascaded in red light. Sound effects incite tension and portray vulnerability within the man.
Because "Architect" has proven to be difficult to label with coherent words and to truly satisfy any curiosity, it must be seen with one's own eyes.
"Architect"
Ukrainian Home-Dnipro
562 Genesee
August 10,11,17,18
All shows at 9pm
$20 general, $12 students