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Unholy Secrets of the Theremin

nytheatre.com review by Steve Chasey
August 15, 2005

The Theremin is a musical instrument consisting of two metal bars, which, as the player moves his hands in the air around them, produce eerie but seductive music. These haunting sounds feel like the background to a sci-fi movie, the kind that would escalate in volume until, in a crescendo, a previously hidden alien (for example) leaps into view. Kip Rosser and Jef Anderson’s play, Unholy Secrets of the Theremin, grabs at that insidious feeling, drawing it out and couching the drama of its inventor's life inside its wispy notes. But not to fear, Unholy Secrets of the Theremin is hardly morose: the Theremin can play the Beatles as well.The fueling energy of this play is the dynamic between Rosser and Anderson. Anderson’s deep-throated enunciation and startling stares into the audience carefully balance Rosser’s spirited antics and snappy dance moves. The duo bounces off each other well, creating moments of pithy morals and humor. Their routine takes the audience through the life of the inventor of the Theremin, spiraling quickly through brief captures of his frenetic mindset, all strung between actual Theremin performances by Rosser. The general pacing of the show escalates in intensity, building up a fervor that accomplishes its goal, to mimic the “unholy” madness of the Theremin's creator.Though the scenes between Rosser and Anderson do escalate with higher and higher intensity, the alternating musical interludes unfortunately break up the pace of the play. The audience’s attention to the highly intricate and esoteric plotline is broken up by long sessions of Theremin playing, which, though exciting in their own right, detract from the overall experience of the play.Though the continuity between scenes is lacking, the spark between the two eclectic characters on stage (or three, or four, depending on how many times they are "possessed") is undeniably captivating. The duo’s direction of the show, like any good staging, is seamless and nearly invisible; the mayhem that Rosser and Anderson unleash on the stage bends and flows according to their will. It emerges much like the music of the Theremin, as an intricate, mysterious dance.