FRINGE FESTIVAL : PERFORMANCE ART : PULNER, OHARA IN ‘ASTROBODY’

As a statement on cross-pollination of Oriental and Occidental cultures, performance artists Alan Pulner and Rika Ohara danced, sketched, lectured and acted through their hourlong collaboration “Astroboy Meets Godzilla” on Thursday at Oranges and Sardines--a small gallery near Little Tokyo. An appreciative audience of about 20 attended this Fringe Festival event.

A playfully pedantic lecture on the history of Japanese cartoons begins “Astroboy Meets Godzilla,” which quickly moves through various episodes of many moods, all leading up to a final horror of dropping a nuclear bomb. Meanwhile, the America-versus-Japan theme underscores a more significant revelation, a younger generation immersed in an imaginary world of mass-media cartoons.

Although manic monologues and other theatrical elements dominate the work of Pulner and Ohara, there are also slide shows, video, recorded and live music, scribbling on paper with Magic Markers, simple dance steps and even food: Before the performance, an appetizer of mushrooms and tofu was served--a symbol later revealed as the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Pulner’s frenzied rantings, which involve working up quite a sweat, complement appropriately the more subdued, measured style of the bilingual (Japanese/English) Ohara.

All and all, the performance suffered from rough edges and technical difficulties, but achieved the shocking impact desired.