The Summit at Guild Hall: New Voices on a Traditional Stage

 “I am suffering!” That’s not a whine you hear often in East Hampton, but at Guild Hall, the plaint is cause for a visit to an emotional calibration center.

When Guild Hall decided to commission new theatrical work from young artists, the move seemed radical. Over the summer season, the state of the art East Hampton arts institution had staged readings of traditional work by Eugene Pack and Harold Pinter utilizing the talents of seasoned and local performers such as John Magaro, Tim Ransom, Harris Yulin and Mercedes Ruehl, with Matthew Broderick to join in for a Q&A. But this week, The Summit, a collaborative multi-media work from directors Christian Scheider, Tucker Marder, and a master puppeteer, Isla Hansen, transformed the jewel box of a theater into a laboratory, for a tragicomedy, and for experimental theater.

For opening night, the creative team took the audience on a backstage tour, to see how Guild Hall’s boxes were fitted with plywood booths, housing cameras for live action projected visits, for example, to the toilet, for a “download,” in the parlance of one of The Summit’s characters. Body functions are under scrutiny in this futuristic meditation on the perils of being human. In a kitchen scene, your worst nightmare comes true with talking food processor and potato peeler. The puppets, brainchildren of Isla Hanson, manned by actors in black, looking a bit like terrorists, add to the mayhem as an “Everyman” (Chris Daftsios) undergoes therapy.

Sight and verbal gags make for a hilarious experience at the theater for a show that violates every rule. What was my favorite part? There’s much to list: a last supper scene of the actors in a long row; a party scene; a massive blob, the live music, all making the audience part of the action. When I asked Christian Scheider whether or not William S. Burroughs influenced the play’s themes, he said no. A coincidence then: his dad Roy best known for Jaws, played Dr. Benway in David Cronenberg’s adaptation of Burroughs’ Naked Lunch, evoking similar themes of human fragility, and finding the body an obstacle to transcendence. The strategy of satiric rule-breaking provides a commonality of spirit. What’s next for this commissioned work? The Summit, a hit at Guild Hall, would be perfect for BAM’s Black Box Theater.

Regina Weinreich

Graphic Design: Salpeter Ventura