Performed at the Southern Theatre, Minneapolis
Our Perfectly Wonderful Lives, a dance and physical theatre performance, is a comic bio of Andy Warhol and his rise to stardom.
Credits
Created and Developed by Paul Herwig and Jennifer Ilse, with Sears Eldredge and Gerry GiroaurdProject Initiator – Paul Herwig
Choreography by Jennifer Ilse
Scenic Design by Paul Herwig
Soundtrack Composed by Ben Siems in collaboration with Jeremy Hauer
Lighting by Jeff Bartlett
Text by the Cast
Cast – 6, Paul Herwig, Jennifer Ilse, Diane Aldis, Zeb Henderson-Shreve, John Munger, Katie Kaufmann
Duration: 40 min.
Reviews
MNArtists Review"The other half of the weekend was filled by the Ivey Award-winning theater/movement troupe Off-Leash Area. “Our Perfectly Wonderful Lives,” co-directed by Jennifer Ilse and Paul Herwig, was a hilariously loose take on the life and art of Andy Warhol—renamed, in this show, Randy Harlow, and perfectly embodied by Herwig—that expanded beyond those parameters to address our culture’s obsession with celebrity...Off-Leash’s “Our Perfectly Wonderful Lives” seemed absolutely giddy after all that, with the production’s handling of the material clear and concise, silly and trenchant. This work, too, opens with a ritual: of waking up. Diane Aldis, John Munger, Ilse and Zeb Henderson Shreve (representing “The Public”) rise from slumber, open up their hollowed-out televisions, and bring out the objects of their individual morning rituals—whether that involves plugging a coffee grinder or razor or hair dryer into the flower pictures behind them (a nod to Warhol’s repetitive pop-culture screen prints). Aldis exercises. Ilse smokes cigarettes. Munger salutes the flag. Shreve drinks coffee. Then they all “watch” tv. The host of the show (this one, and the imaginary one on tv) is Wendy Williams (Katie Kaufman). And through the 40-minute “Our Perfectly Wonderful Lives,” she rises from tv anchor to tv personality as she follows (and leads) her subject, the artist Randy Harlow, from relative obscurity to sudden sensation (he’s just painted his first picture of a sugar packet); into a museum show (yes, everyone must get a t-shirt); through fan frenzy, the opening of a club (read Warhol’s Factory) and drug-fueled debauchery; and out to a Michael-Jackson-state of enervated recovery, in which Harlow (Herwig) is made up to resemble one of Warhol’s blue-lidded, red-lipped, white-faced celebrity portraits.
Her questions evolve from “Why paint sugar packets?”—to which Harlow provides a long childlike answer—to “Do you take a multi-vitamin?” and “Who are you dating?” From there, Harlow’s answers are a simple “Yes” “No” or “I don’t know,” which becomes his pop-culture mantra. When Harlow, dressed in red-rosebud-encrusted jock strap and cape, regally walks into a glass case, the transformation from person to exhibit is complete.
Off-Leash has turned its critical eye on our individual, institutional, and cultural complicity in the commercialism of art and creation of celebrity...they keep us on our toes and entertained all the way."
- Camille Lefever, mnartists.org