Curious Infinity Play is a Lovely Gordian Knot of Words

Curious Theatre Branch’s latest offering The Infinity Play by Paul William Brennan is a complex, word heavy, impressionistic meditation on pattern and variation and the messes we make with our thoughts, ruminations and petty jockeying for dominance. There is a great deal of verbal play and fairly thick philosophical riffs in this script, but whether they are drinking themselves under the table or playing a crooked game of checkers, these characters keep doggedly on trying to figure it out. 

The ten actors work themselves through nine scenes and pretty much completely trash the place (don’t sit in the front row if you are mess adverse) and mostly sweep that under the curtain (including a dead prophet) while basically contemplating quantum time, the nature of history, how to cheat at chess, and how to order who gets to speak first. They drink large quantities of wine and slap each other silly.  There are puppets, dolls and a tiny dollhouse.  It is non linear but has a beginning, a middle and an end, and it interacts with live video feed, projections and film: as a performance work in a tiny storefront, it is an incredibly smart and sophisticated work.  What is it about? It completely depends on who you are and what your concerns are:  the work made me consider the fundamental nature of humans and the circularity of history all the while being acutely aware of the potentiality of alternative realities…

Despite being a heady intellectual work, there is a visceral quality and not a small amount of humor.  There is nothing else like it on stage in Chicago. Part philosophy exercise, part performance art, part experimentation, part messing up and trying to not mess up, it's an adventure in thinking. 

The Infinity play is on stage at the intimate Jarvis Square Theater at 1439 W Jarvis Street in Chicago’s Rogers Park on Fridays through Sundays until May 18th. For tickets and information go to  https://curioustheatrebranch.com/onstage

For more reviews go to https://www.theatreinchicago.com