Exhibitionism

ROYGBIV 2001: THAT'S LIFE ... D'OH!

The Vortex,

through May 19

Running Time: 1 hr, 30 min

The white eyes bulge outward in two almost perfect spheres, like ping pong balls plopped in a bowl of dough. The nose that separates these two pale orbs is a rather nondescript affair, a thin ridge sloping upward into a pasty knob that barely rises out of the plane of the face, almost as if it were not wanting to draw attention to itself. Under its tentative projection sits a pair of lips pursed in a perpetual "o," somewhat like they're trying to get the hang of whistling but not having much success. Taken with the protruding eyes and furrowed forehead (resembling ripples in a pond of milk), it suggests a look of unending stupefaction, befuddlement that begins in the cradle and ends in the grave.

This is the face belonging to the Everyman protagonist of ROYGBIV 2001: A Human Odyssey, and it never changes throughout his life, which we see in its entirety in this ONE Theatre Company production. The troupe, inspired by the "Seven Ages of Man" speech from As You Like It -- you know, the one that starts: "All the world's a stage …" -- has set out to chronicle the universal passages of human existence and so created this figure that they follow from birth to death, depicting him at seven points along the way, points corresponding roughly to those described in Shakespeare's text: the infant, the schoolboy, the adolescent lover, the young careerist, the middle-aged establishment figure, the senior citizen, the frail ancient. Christened Roy G. Biv, after the mnemonic for the colors of the spectrum, and represented by the plaster mask described above, he wanders through the world confronting parental indifference, childhood cruelties, fickle romance, workplace competition, political corruption, the feebleness of old age, and the final exit with an expression of bafflement that never fades.

The mask, which was the creation of Daniel McKeever, is one of the production's strongest elements. While it may come off as a tad creepy at first, the bugged-out eyes and puckered mouth eventually suggest a comic incomprehensibility within the character, a sense that he just doesn't get whatever is going on around him, and while he may follow the crowd, may even lead it, he'll never really grasp what it is he's doing; he'll always be a little at odds with the world. And that suggests a very human vulnerability in Roy G. Biv. That all this is captured so simply, in just a few circles, lines, and squiggles, calls to mind the face of a cartoon character -- think Homer Simpson or Charlie Brown.

You might be reminded of those characters more than once during ROYGBIV 2001. Besides one obvious moment -- in the schoolboy vignette, a hapless young Roy is teased by his classmates to a garage-band rendition of Vince Guaraldi's "Linus and Lucy" music from the Peanuts TV specials -- there is something of a cartoon sensibility at work here. The members of ONE Theatre Company, who developed the show collaboratively, tell Roy's story primarily through mime, relying heavily on physical comedy for dramatic punch. Some segments even end on a comic note that feels as if it could have come from a strip, as when infant Roy stands by himself for the first time only to have his mom ignore the achievement and turn on the TV. D'oh!

Make no mistake, though: ROYGBIV 2001 is no episode of The Simpsons or any other broad cartoon escapade. It looks to be aspiring toward something more ambitious -- a portrait of humanity as all-encompassing as Shakespeare's, sketched with an eye toward folly but not bitter or mocking -- and when that's combined with the masks and the mime, well, that's a lot for a young company to handle, even one as talented as ONE. Unfortunately, none of the other masks boast the graphic elegance and expressiveness of Roy's mask, and some don't even fit their wearers that well, all of which detracts from their effectiveness. The mime work is generally strong enough to get the dramatic ideas across, but it's also pretty rough. And there is just enough polished movement to remind you how much more effective crisp, clean, directed movement is. That becomes most apparent in the scene at a dance, when each performer gets a chance to shake his or her groove thang solo. There's a precision to the dance moves that is exciting and energizing -- and that just isn't present much anywhere else in the piece. Of course, the piece is being billed as a work in progress, and perhaps the company will incorporate more polished moves into the next "age" of the show's life. At present, though, ROYGBIV seems to be in the midst of adolescence: Full of big dreams, idealistic, and ready to take on the world, but still a little awkward in its own body.