Label-Defying Artist Back for Sushi Thirds

Performance artist David Cale has had a collection of his stories published by Random House. Apparently, bookstores are having as difficult a time categorizing his work as theater critics are.

A recent search for the book, titled “The Redthroats,” exemplified the difficulty of labeling Cale’s work. One store had the book under poetry, another under nonfiction. The book itself carries the label “Drama/Fiction.”

None of the categorizations is inaccurate, nor is “all of the above.”

The British-born Cale brings his latest description-defying work to Sushi Performance Gallery tonight through Saturday. This is Cale’s third visit to Sushi; the last was two years ago when he performed “The Redthroats.”

This weekend’s appearance is a premiere of sorts because Cale will, for the first time on the same program, perform two works created as companion pieces.

“The first part is called ‘Little Stories With Private Parts,’ and it’s presented from a child’s point of view,” Cale said. “The second half is called ‘The Nature of Things,’ and it’s presented from an adult’s point of view, but on the same subject matters.

“It’s the same person in each part. Some bits are autobiographical and some aren’t. I use autobiography as a springboard and let my imagination go, and it becomes quite fictionalized.

“The stories are about basic issues of identity, sexuality, fear and prejudices. In many ways, it’s quite simple.”

The stories in “Private Parts” are laced with humor, as evidenced by “The Streaker,” in which the boy develops an insatiable hunger for running naked around the garden. In “Johnny Mathis Is Coming,” a small English town comes alive with the prospect of the singer’s arrival. “The Prince Charles Problem” explores how the boy copes with his grandmother’s eccentric obsession with the royal family and her theory that he looks exactly like the prince.

Cale refers to his pieces as “theatrical monologues,” a dramatic approach that has brought acclaim to artists such as Spaulding Gray and Eric Bogosian.

“There’s something about solo performance, at its best, that’s extremely human,” Cale said. “It’s a very straightforward communication. It’s sort of a response to things becoming so technical and dehumanized. Parts of it are traditional storytelling, others are more like songs and monologues.”

The reference to songs is appropriate. Cale started out as a singer in his native England. He came to the States in the early ‘80s, intent on a musical career, and now lives in New York.

“Initially, I was working with rock bands, and then it sort of segued more into club settings with just a piano player, but still doing eclectic material--everything from rock to standards. Then I started writing songs and then just reading the lyrics. That’s when I started being booked into theaters.

“The style of the pieces in this show are conventional short stories, and others look like lyrics on a page. They’re almost melodic. I play around with my voice a lot.”

“The Nature of Things” was written to be performed with a live band, which Cale will do when the work opens in New York in March. His musical collaborators include former Lounge Lizard saxophonist Roy Nathanson and acclaimed guitarist Marc Ribot, who has recently recorded with Tom Waits and Elvis Costello.