Focus of Minimalist Piece Stays Too ‘Raw’ for Comfort

A director might have helped matters at the Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica on Wednesday evening. A writer could have contributed as well. And there’s certainly much to be gained from sound design. Unfortunately, Rick Lepore and Alistair McCartney chose to execute their dance/performance-art piece “Raw” relying only on themselves.

What resulted was an agonizing 65 minutes of unfocused, unimaginative theater, with the specter of dealing with AIDS reduced to patent statements like “I cook you dinner, I comb your hair.” The promotional flier, featuring a photo of the pair clad only in briefs and kneepads, posed the question, “Just how nasty can two sweet queer boys get?” Not nasty--or sweet--enough. The duo failed to deliver on any creative count.

A slide of a chain-link fence was the opening backdrop to McCartney’s running in circles. With the addition of Lepore, the two of them made the overflow audience feel imprisoned by dizzying claustrophobia as they jumped, skipped and bunny-hopped in bare feet. Lepore then removed McCartney’s muscle tee with his teeth. McCartney, in turn, did the same to Lepore.

This “strip teeth” proved the highlight of an evening in which Lepore mostly made faces and traversed the floor like a flailing-armed crab. McCartney, prone, whined a jealous lament concerning a missing lover, as well as displaying a host of faux yoga moves. After exhausting amplified emotions, McCartney resorted to the mantra, “When technology fails you, there is always the body.”

Perhaps, but even while embracing, there was no authentic connection between the two.