ORIGINAL
PRESS CLIPPINGS

SINGULAR RHYTHMS OF THE KNEE PLAYS

"the Knee Plays" is the connective tissue in a far larger work, Wilson's 12-hour epic "the CIVIL warS: a tree is best measured when it is down." In vaudeville terminology, knee plays are entr'actes, bridging the main attractions. In this case, they are intended to link the 15 scenes of "the CIVIL warS," a work that poses such logistical and financial difficulties that it has yet to be staged in its entirety. Instead, segments of the whole have been presented at various times in various theaters around the world. Watching "the Knee Plays," you can't avoid the conclusion that you are getting more bits and pieces.

Some of them, admittedly, can be evocative. A tree — the tree of knowledge? — slowly tumbles to the ground to flashes of lightning and claps of thunder, then breaks into square fragments that whirl out into the cosmos. A boat — Noah's ark? — is assembled from cubes and then launched into the ocean. Later, it is hit by cannon fire and sinks slowly into a shimmering ocean. Later still, a man, wearing a large white doll's head, rises from his chair, climbs a ladder and plucks a book from a shelf, which he proceeds to read. As he reads, a tree slowly grows behind him, which brings us full circle.

Simple and spare on the surface, "the Knee Plays" is ultimately dense with private meanings and secretive rhythms. Those who've been wondering where to go and what to see ever since Peter Sellars' Free Theater closed its doors at the Kennedy Center will want to take a look. The uniqueness of the endeavor may not be enough for others, though, who are likely to find themselves frustrated by the elegant enigmas Wilson insists on putting on the stage.

Answers, of course, are not mandatory in the theater. But it would be nice to have a somewhat clearer notion of the questions that are being asked.

the Knee Plays, scenario by Robert Wilson, music and words by David Byrne. Directed by Wilson. Choreography by Suzushi Hanayagi; lighting, Heinrich Brunke; musical director, Frank London; dance captain, Gail Donnenfeld. With Frank Conversano, Denise Gustafson, Jeannie Hill, Carl House, Choo Kyoo-Hyun, Fabrizia Pinto, Satoru Shimazaki, Sanghi Wagner. At the Warner Theatre through Nov. 22.