Dionysian pleasures abound at the Rude Mechanical's shows now running at the Flea, and both are well worth your time. A testament to the skills of this young company, both Caryl Churchill's A Mouthful of Birds and Charles Mee's The Bacchae 2.1 receive first-rate productions. Tumultuously erotic and gleefully ecstatic, these striking productions are must-see theatre.
The pig scene remains one of the play's highlights and in Rebecca Taylor's production, this moment is perfect, striking just the right balance between absurdity and poignancy. Businessman Paul (Eric Siegel), who makes his profit in pork, develops deep feelings for a certain pig which he has seen at the farm (Donnie Mather, hoofs and all): "There was one pig I noticed. Once I started looking at him...," Paul admits to his friend. The pig now comes dancing into Paul's imagination at inopportune moments, such as business meetings, and their relationship deepens even after the pig's untimely demise. Siegel and Mather are magnificently funny and credit should be given to Lindsey Hanahan's choreography. For a scene (and in truth, an entire show) where movement is crucial, Hanahan's choreography and Taylor's direction nicely complement each other here. The pig sequence could be just silly, but instead it is rendered into a theatrical moment that delivers unexpected emotional force.
Also moving is the scene when Derek (played with gusto by Chris Edwards) is possessed by Herculine Barbin (played effectively by Sara Kathryn Bakker). Barbin was a nineteenth century hermaphrodite whose memoirs Churchill read when they were translated into English in 1980. When Derek, the unemployed gym fanatic, finds himself inhabited by this multiply-sexed spirit, the scene unfolds into a meditation on gender politics: We see the muscular Edwards put on the Victorian dress and transform himself into something else, not male, but also not female. The episode ends in a heartbreaking manner when Barbin's spirit leaves Derek: "Couldn't you have stayed?," he asks. Again, it is a moment that is theatrically affecting.

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ENDGAME

"The cast assembled for the Rude Mechanicals production, under the clear, intelligent, unfussy direction of Stephan Golux, serves the text admirably. . . the comparitive youth of the company could be said to add to the inherent poignancy of the material, considering the generally hapless state into which the characters have maneuvered themselves, long before their lives are spent."
- Irish Echo

"For a fledgling theater company, the Rude Mechanicals deliver top-shelf production values. . ."
- City Search

"As the slow-witted Clov, David Fitzgerald gives an energetic, guileless perfomance that exudes charm from the moment he turns to the audience and smiles comspiratorially."
- Show Business PRESS

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