It’s Tough to ‘Get’ Malpede’s Meanings

“Get” and “Pre-Existing Conditions,” the works in John Malpede’s rare solo turn at Highways, are so anti-theatrical they verge on parody. Arguably, that is Malpede’s intent. Arguable too is whether he successfully deconstructs notions of theatrical convention and artifice or merely wastes our time.

Malpede is best known for his association with the Los Angeles Poverty Department, a theater company made up primarily of homeless men and women that he founded in the mid-1980s and that he shepherded to national visibility. Yet prior to his association with the organization, Malpede was already an established performance artist. And make no mistake; these are “performance pieces” as opposed to theater pieces. Loosely defined, nonlinear and impressionistic, they skirt a thin line between cutting edge and pretension, occasionally tumbling into the latter.

A surprisingly cheeky riff, “Get” lampoons the cult of materialism and the national obsession with wealth. The fact that it opened on the day of one of the worst stock slumps in recent history was an effective stroke of serendipity nicely underscoring the irony.

“Get” features videotaped segments of Malpede holding forth about compound interest, banking procedures, insurance statistics, and so on. We never see Malpede’s eyes or full face; the camera is always fixed on his mouth or hands. For the live action, Malpede performs in utter darkness. Interspersed between video segments and Brian Karl’s original techno music, the gravel-voiced Malpede intones an Orwellian communique from a credit card company that is both chilling and funny.

Although effectively satiric, “Get” is slight to the point of the negligible. Even so, it is more substantial than “Pre-Existing Conditions,” the evening’s closer, which seems tacked on to swell the evening to an acceptable running length. While a vintage song plays, Malpede totters a few steps, takes off his hat and prostrates himself on the floor, jerking one leg about and whimpering. It’s a bit like watching a dog have a nightmare--though a dog’s nightmare might actually involve rudimentary thought processes.

* “Get” and “Pre-Existing Conditions,” Highways, 1651 18th St., Santa Monica. Friday and Saturday, 8:30 p.m. Ends Saturday. $15. (310) 315-1459. Running time: 1 hour.