Skip to main content
You are the owner of this article.
You have permission to edit this article.
Edit

REVIEW: Bridge Street’s ‘Out of Order’ invites you to play along with joy

IMG_5001.jpeg

Carl Holder in "Out of Order" at Bridge Street Theatre in Catskill.

“Out of Order,” created and performed by Carl Holder at Bridge Street Theatre, is a joyful, generously compassionate parlor game of a play. It might be a hell of a lark but there’s more going on just below the party atmosphere that will have you pulling narrative strands out of the performance and creating your own play in your mind.

Holder enters the lobby of Bridge Street from their offices dressed in a white hoodie, sweatpants and sweatsocks, looking like some kind of experimental scientific model of humanity. He introduces himself, welcomes us to the room and says he will take his curtain call now. I laughed hard and was tempted to give him a standing ovation. Remember, there’s no regret sharper than the standing ovation you didn’t give.

He has a basket of 50 index cards folded up with prompts written on them. These could be simple declarative statements “I’m gaining weight and I’m not happy about it” to instructions for himself (like taking the curtain call), or activities that involved the audience like “cell phone” — which meant we all were encouraged to take our phones out and photograph him through a number of posed situations. All photographs accompanying this article were taken by me at the performance Saturday night.

One of the prompts was “say something nice,” and he circled the room assessing every single audience member. I was flattered that I had a nice, welcoming smile, which indicated that I was up for anything. My partner Chris was nailed as a manager who would take care of things. I could really get into these psychic readings after two theater performances which featured them made me feel really good.

The show had the audience laughing throughout often at Carl, who is a great actor taking on personas, and who fully commits to the bit. Many of the biggest laughs came with throwaway lines almost whispered or the myriad ways he had of throwing away the cards. He commented later when audience members were reading cards that the throwing away of the card was the best part. We were also laughing at ourselves and each other as the audience was very much part of the performance and we became very familiar with each other. We even started identifying personal characteristics of fellow audience members-physical, verbal and temperamental as they took turns in the show.

This might sound like a haphazard entertainment with the necessarily random nature of the structure with plot elements literally picked out of a hat but there are exceptionally strong themes (live in the now, everyone is more alike than different …) that emerge that allow you to piece together a relevant message that you can pull out of the piece.

“Out of Order” at times reminded me at times of “Every Brilliant Thing” by Duncan McMillan or John Kolvenbach’s “Stand Up If You’re Here Tonight,” but what makes this show distinctive and treasured is Holder’s loving, gentle relationship with the audience reminding them frequently that they have no obligation to participate but he patiently waited for us to cross that line. He was also an incredible performer and when you think how mind-bogglingly different the performance is night to night … that standing ovation I was tempted to give in the opening moments? Thoroughly justified.

“Out of Order” created and performed by Carl Holder plays at Bridge Street Theatre in Catskill through Sunday. Tickets: www.bridgest.org or 518-943-3818.

IMG_4994.jpeg

Carl Holder in "Out of Order" at Bridge Street Theatre in Catskill.

IMG_4995.jpeg

Carl Holder in "Out of Order" at Bridge Street Theatre in Catskill.

IMG_4992.jpeg

Carl Holder and audience members in "Out of Order" at Bridge Street Theatre in Catskill.