Bush supporters, lay down your pitchforks. Brian Dykstra's not out to brainwash you. Neocon ideologues, step away from the podium. He doesn't want to debate. What the decidedly anti-Bush actor/comedian/performance artist does have in mind, however, is a forum through which he can angrily and unapologetically vent his frustration over the current political landscape, give his long-suffering liberal demographic some comfort in knowing that they're not alone in their unrest, and, like any self-respecting performance artist, make as many penis jokes and variations of the word f**k as is possible in a single evening.
Staunch Republicans won't want to have much to do with Dykstra's 90-minute rant, but those brave enough to risk possible FBI interrogation and attend will find the performance to be surprisingly unique. While Michael Moore and other politically-charged artists of today seem to regard the purpose of their work as a tool of information and perhaps, conversion, Dykstra doesn't seem interested in winning any swing votes. Rather than attempt to remain purely factual and objective, he instead offers the commentary that Democrats have no doubt been screaming at their television sets since the Regan administration. "Hey Clarence! ... CLARENCE! ... YOU'RE BLACK!!!" he yells, referring to ultra-conservative African-American Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. He gives the dictionary definitions for the words liberal (Favoring proposals for reform, open to new ideas for progress, and tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others; broad-minded) and conservative (Favoring traditional views and values; tending to oppose change) and encourages his fellow liberals to "take back the word," as it's been assigned a somewhat negative connotation in recent years. He criticizes current Democratic politicians for allowing their opponents to paint liberalism as something anti-American, and at intermission, reads aloud from the Declaration of Independence. The idea is not to inundate the audience with overlooked facts that it didn't already know, though Dykstra does drop a few staggering statistics, but rather to identify with the audience's reaction to the same common knowledge.
While many will surely find fault with Dykstra's politics, they will have a much harder time criticizing his talent. He establishes an easy-going rapport with the audience almost immediately, and manages to create a feeling of cozy intimacy while maintaining a super-cool demeanor throughout. Dykstra is certainly more profane and more sarcastic than his politically conservative counterparts, and regardless of how you may regard his point of view, this guy's a Hell of a lot cooler than Bill O'Reilly.
Early in the performance, Dykstra tells the audience that he wants to deconstruct the one-man show format. He does quite a successful job of this, separating his show into three discernable parts; comedy, slam poetry, and biting criticism. His jokes are funny, and are often as incensing and thought-provoking as they are humorous. "Since when were the Dixie Chicks the cutting edge of anything!?" he laments about the apparent political apathy in rock music today. His slam poetry is of that rare breed that is both well-written and well-performed, making what are meant to be the subtle, more reflective moments of the show some of the most exciting and compelling. He emotes just the right balance of humor and urgency in his observations, and is able to startle and unsettle his audience without completely alienating it.
From a political standpoint, Dykstra's upper-West Side production is more or less business as usual; however as an artistic statement, it is a truly distinctive and groundbreaking piece of work. By assuming that his audience is already reasonably informed and that it shares his distaste for the Bush administration, Dykstra has in effect created a piece of political theater that, counter-intuitively, stems from motives that are more artistic in nature than they are political. It is not a changing of teams, or even necessarily political activism that he wants to illicit from his viewers, but rather feelings of catharsis and community; a kind of therapy through theater that signals a melding of politics and art that is rarely seen even in today's politics-as-entertainment mindset.
As is par for a production such as this one, one's own political views will most likely determine either their immense enjoyment or passionate hatred of the performance. Still, in a time when most artistic endeavors that comment on current events seem to use their artistry to sell their politics, it is more than a little refreshing to see an artist use politics as a vehicle for his art.
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