A Bohemian’s Rhapsody

A 2009 blog post about actor/director/playwright/wunderkind Theo Reyna described him as a “suitably bohemian… bearded 30-something.” Certainly his writing sensibilities have the artsy existentialism of a classic chronicler of la vie bohème: His 2009 play, Couch Trip, which had its U.S. premiere at what would become the Miami Theater Center in 2011, captured two guys’ attempts to “manufacture hope” through trying to procure a free sofa in a mountainous desert. It became something like the worst Craigslist tip ever, a journey that included a lion, a mad scientist, and a bucket of sand. Now, Reyna is back with Knowledge and Noise, an equally wandering study of cerebral concepts such as the desire to live “in the moment” and the experience of “readiness” for what life has in store, explored through the neo-mythical structure of a brother and sister’s plunge into the unknown. A gift of $100,000 from a Knight Arts Challenge grant funded this production, and it sounds like just the sort of esoteric, potentially consciousness-raising theater that public art funding was created to support.
Nov. 1-16, 2013