Hospital 2008
CREATED & WRITTEN BY
Axis Company
DIRECTOR
Randy Sharp
nytheatre.com review
Martin Denton · June 5, 2008
Episode 4 (July 18, 2008)
The conclusion of Axis Company's Hospital 2008 is
spectacularly satisfying and, what's better, affecting and
moving in unexpected ways. The theatrical brilliance of the
piece is no surprise given what's come before. But its deep
appreciation for our singular humanity—its life-affirming
uplift of the series' conclusion, reminiscent in the best
possible way of Our Town—really caught me unawares.
This show about the last hours of a comatose man's life
reminds us strongly to honor our time with one another; to
never squander or waste anything that's precious.
Episode 4 skillfully pulls together all the structural and
thematic ideas that have been introduced by its
predecessors, providing clarity and cohesion without
sacrificing subtlety or depth. The playwriting, which is
credited to the company, is remarkable; beautiful in its
simplicity, as when the protagonist's Shift Supervisor gives
him a brief quiz about what's just happened to him, or when
the protagonist himself—a tunnel worker helping to build a
new conduit for the city's water supply—talks about the
importance of his job.
Let me conclude my exploration of this extraordinary four-
part production by reiterating my admiration for all of its
creators: the set by Kyle Chepulis, the lighting by David
Zeffren, the sound by Steve Fontaine, the original music by
Randy Sharp, and the cinematography by Ben Wolf are
especially gorgeous and invaluable; and the work of the
entire cast, led by Brian Barnhart as "Traveller #2," is
superlative. Kudos to all concerned and to director Sharp
for creating a serial that builds in quality, emotion, and
significance as it progresses.
Episode 3 (July 3, 2008)
This series just keeps getting better and better: Episode 3
is more intense and more all-consumingly involving than its
predecessors. The opening prologue on film—which I think
provides enough information so that any newcomer to
Hospital 2008 can follow the story, even if s/he missed the
first two episodes—contains some footage we've already
seen plus some new footage; what I was aware of,
throughout, was a sense of mortality. I thought: what would
it be like to realize that the day you're going through was
the last day you'd spend on Earth fully conscious and alive?
The live action scenes that follow, in the tunnel and then in
the hospital, are now all clearly the distorted memories of
the play's protagonist, a man in a coma who is revisiting that
last day I just alluded to—revisiting it in his mind while a
team of doctors perform a surgery on him that does not go
well at all.
Director Randy Sharp and her remarkable collaborators (on
and off stage) balance an eerie dark humor with a mood
that's at once supremely frightening and richly (and oddly)
life-affirming, especially in the burlesque-of-a-hospital
scene that occupies the center of Episode 3 (and the actors
portraying the hospital staff give performances that are
accordingly deeper and more resonant than in prior weeks;
particularly Laurie Kilmartin's human, oh-so-fallible Nurse).
This evocation leads us brilliantly into the final sequence of
the evening, in which the recurring strangers in the tunnel
(see below) appear once again, this time in the guises of
Charon, Hades, and Persephone. Our hero is starting to
understand what his fate is, following his catastrophic
accident. I, for one, am ready to return for the final chapter
of Hospital 2008, to experience it through his eyes. I sense
transformation ahead...
Episode 2 (June 21, 2008)
Episode 2 of Axis Company's Hospital 2008 is even more
riveting than Episode 1 was. It's spookier too; one of the
most astonishing things about this serial show so far is how
effectively it renders, in an intimate indie theater space, the
complete netherworldly phantasmagoric environment that is
inside the protagonist's sub/un-conscious memory.
We acquire some new information about what happened in
the catalytic tunnel accident. And we learn more about the
comatose traveler's state of mind at the time of the accident
with the visitation of two new characters in a scene set in
the tunnel—the legendary John Henry himself, with an
assistant in tow, providing clues about the way out of
danger. (Of course, this probably isn't actually John Henry.)
At the hospital (still rendered, ingeniously and eerily, on the
same tunnel set) we meet someone who the doctors and
nurse think is applying for a job. But she is obviously trying
to find out what's happening to the man in the coma. And
we understand, better than in Episode 1, that everything the
doctors and nurse say is being filtered through the limited
processing capability of said man in coma.
George Demas plays John Henry and is at once frightening,
funny, and ineffably sad. Britt Genelin is the "applicant."
Other cast members are as in Episode 1; all are
spectacularly good.
Director Randy Sharp and the rest of the folks at Axis have
created something that's entertaining, engaging, and—so it
now seems—utterly addictive. I'm looking forward to
Episode 3!
Episode 1
Axis Company's annual serial Hospital has been going on
for nine years, and somehow I had never seen it until now.
The first episode of this year's four-part play, which is set
inside the mind of a comatose man seriously injured in the
collapse of a tunnel (part of New York's underground water
system), is arresting, thrilling, tantalizing, and—in terms of
its physical production—spectacularly impressive. So far,
I'm hooked.
The one-act drama plays out in three scenes plus a filmed
prologue. This prologue is fascinating, interweaving scenes
in what appears to be the apartment of the protagonist
(where various details and seeming trivialities foreshadow
what's to come) with scenes in the tunnel where the
protagonist (called "Traveller" in the program) works. What
follows is a quick and alarming representation of the
accident: we don't know its exact nature, but we do know
that afterward, the Traveller plus two of his colleagues are
lost in the dark, underground. They radio for help but it's
not clear that any is forthcoming.
The play then cuts to a hospital room, which is depicted on
the same tunnel set simply by the arrival of a pair of doctors
and a nurse; it's also shown to us on three video monitors
above the stage that alternately provide the comatose
patient's P.O.V and his heart monitor. This scene melds the
eerie surreal qualities that permeate the edges of what
we've already witnessed with a more blatant absurdity.
When we return to the tunnel, characters from Alice in
Wonderland turn up—the Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts,
and the White Rabbit—and the Traveller, though surprised
to encounter new people down here, is nonchalant vis-a-vis
their startling identities.
It's all very discombobulating and very magnetic. Nothing is
entirely clear and yet the elusive nature of a subconscious
dream state is thrillingly conveyed. There's a cliffhanger
ending, inviting us to return for Episode 2.
Director Randy Sharp's expert story-telling is only the
beginning of the roster of remarkable accomplishments on
display in Hospital 2008. The cast does expert work, with
Brian Barnhart, Ian Tooley, and Marc Palmieri entirely
convincing as the possibly abandoned (and, in some cases,
possibly deceased) tunnel workers; George Demas, Edgar
Oliver, and Britt Genelin are wonderfully daffy and creepy
as the Wonderland figures; and Laurie Kilmartin, Paul Marc
Barnes, and David Crabb are comically off-kilter as the
hospital personnel.
The film work—by cinematographer Ben Wolf and editor
Laura Weinberg—is exceptional. And the design work for
the live stage production are exemplary, among the best of
its kind I've seen for theatre in any sector in NYC. Kyle
Chepulis has transformed the stage into a believable
tunnel, with craggy and convincingly damp stone walls and
nooks and crannies leading off rather spookily. David
Zeffren's lighting and Steve Fontaine's sound complete the
ambience, combining realism with horror-film scariness in a
manner that keeps us engaged and on the edge of our
seats throughout. Matthew Simonelli's costumes—whimsical
for the Wonderland characters, naturalistic for the
Travellers, and somewhere in between for the hospital
staff—are excellent.
The overall effect is to transport the audience to a world
we've never been to for about 35 minutes...and to leave us
hungry for more of the experience. Check back here for a
report on Episode 2 in a couple of weeks.
Copyright ©2008 The New York Theatre Experience, Inc. All
rights reserved.
Coma chameleon in
'Hospital 2008'
Saturday, June 14th 2008
A scene from 'Hospital 2008.'
A catastrophic tunnel collapse. A man in a coma.
A medical staff at the end of their resources.
It may sound like an episode of "ER," but the
story is that of another serial drama, the Axis
Theater Company's "Hospital 2008."
The episodic play is now in its ninth incarnation.
Every year, the company produces the
segmented story of a comatose character -
played by actor Brian Barnhart from year to year
- as he lives out his final interior moments. The
play runs in four episodes, each about 35
minutes long and self-contained enough that new
audience members can easily catch up (this week
marks the kickoff for episode two). In fact, the
audience need not catch all four episodes - but
many do.
"'Hospital' has a big following," says Axis artistic
director Randy Sharp. "We missed a year
because we made a feature movie and people
were calling and calling. A lot of people do try to
catch all four episodes."
The series had what Sharp calls a "rough start" in
1997, and gradually found its audience. Each
version has focused on a different disaster.
"Every year he goes into the coma a different
way," says Sharp of the central character. "One
year he was frozen. One year he was murdered.
One year he drowned. One year he was in a fire.
One year he had bird flu. And this year he's in
the collapse of Water Tunnel Number 3, which is
the huge public works project in New York right
now."
The audience is privy to the patient's final
musings, which range from scary to hilarious and
back again. Sharp, 45, has been writing what she
calls the "framework" of the play since it began.
The details of the story and the elaborate set and
video design are filled in by Axis Company
members.
"This year we had three episodes ready prior to
the first rehearsal," Sharp says of the process.
"That's a first. Normally I'd be writing the
frame-work for episode two in the middle of
episode one."
Still, the challenge of the production is what
keeps things interesting. "It makes you produce
smart work because you have to change the play
every two weeks," says Sharp. "It's kind of an
exercise in firing on all cylinders for us."
"Hospital 2008" is at 1 Sheridan Square,
Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m.,
$12. www.axiscompany.org.
Patrick Huguenin