I was one of the lucky ones who were able to see their production of A Thousand Ways – done at the Public Theatre – which was the very first LIVE productions that know of that were done in NYC as Covid was beginning to release its hold on the city.  Their stuff is damn exciting.  They are certainly a group that doesn’t come “down to our level” but invites us to come to a higher artistic level – to truly challenge us as an audience.

Add to this Talking Band.  This group was founded in 1974 by Ellen Maddow, Tina Shepard and Paul Zimet. It has roots The Open Theatre, where Maddow, Shepard and Zimet worked as core company members. Director, actor and writer Joseph Chaikin founded the Open Theatre. After Chaikin disbanded The Open Theatre in 1973, Maddow, Shepard and Zimet founded a new theatre company, The Talking Band.

The group is a resident company at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, where it has produced and performed many of its plays. It has also performed at many of New York City’s off-off Broadway theater venues, including, Performance Space 122, Theatre for the New City, Dance Theater Workshop and Dixon Place.  The group has also performed internationally at many mainstage and experimental venues.

The result of mixing this very YOUNG couple and this very SEASONED couple on stage was simply electrifiy.  Watching their bodies work in harmony as they told the story of a-day-in-the-life for both Ellen Meadows and Paul Zimet was magnetic.  The simplest of events – the simplest of movements – the simplest of crosses across the room were filled with artistry and purpose.  You could certainly appreciate the mastery that decades of performance brought to Talking Band.  They couldn’t even gesture with their arms and hands without it meaning something.  As with most experimental theatre, it is difficult to give a plot or summary, but its central theme was the parallel between age and youth and how each group moved through space and time – where they came together and where they drew apart.  It was a VERY rare experience in the theatre.