Prior to COVID, the acclaimed U.K./German art collective Gob Squad maintained a busy touring schedule, presenting its unconventional multimedia works on every continent but Antarctica. But for company member Sharon Smith, it’s the journey she takes with the audience at each performance that she has missed most over the past two years.
“I’m so happy to be back at it after all this time,” she says. “Kitchen is one of my favorite shows to perform, and we’re really looking forward to our time in Nashville.”
Smith is referring to Gob Squad’s Kitchen: You’ve Never Had It So Good, which runs at OZ Arts March 24 through 27. First performed in Berlin in 2007, the piece employs the group’s signature blend of live video and performance to explore the heyday of Andy Warhol’s Factory. As the show opens, we meet an enthusiastic group of performers who’ve decided to go back in time to re-create Warhol’s underground film Kitchen, acting it out on minimalist sets and presenting it as a live black-and-white film. There’s just one problem — none of them have actually seen the original.
“I feel like Kitchen is something of a microcosm for how we work — that way of bringing together the real and created self, elevating and framing reality in a very cinematic way,” Smith says. “The audience is basically invited to step back with us into 1965. Four performers attempt — and the word attempt is very important here — to relive this iconic time in history with all the coolest movers and shakers. But there’s a sense of failure built into it because we can’t possibly know what it was really like. So we become frustrated by our inability to transcend into that time and place — we just don’t feel we’re being authentic enough. But then we look at the audience and think: ‘Hmmm, they’re real. Maybe we can recruit some help.’ ”
But rest assured, while audiences may be asked to step outside the traditional role of spectator, there’s no pressure to participate.
“We take very good care of our audiences,” says Smith. “We want them to enjoy themselves. So yes, we’re interactive, but we’re never going to grab someone by the collar and drag them into the show. It’s much more open and playful — just an invitation to go with us on this crazy journey.”
That journey actually begins from the moment you enter the theater. Smith says the audience tours the onstage studio space before taking their seats in front of a large movie screen, where the action being filmed behind the screen is projected live.
“I think that’s my favorite moment — letting the audience trail through the set, and getting to meet them,” she says. “We’re all in character, basically playing ourselves but in 1965. So we’re all done up in these fabulous Edie Sedgwick sort of outfits, and chatting with the audience, getting a sense of who they are.”
While one might assume that audiences (and audience reaction) would vary greatly from city to city, Smith says there’s something about a Gob Squad gathering that goes beyond cultural stereotypes. “Although there’s certainly a different feel as you move from Berlin to Paris or New York City or Calgary, there’s something about the theater that transcends all that. Once you’re out on the street or in the bar, that’s where you’ll see the differences. But I think the theater scene in general — and maybe Gob Squad specifically — unifies people and transcends any kind of obvious cultural identity. There’s a wonderful alchemy to it that’s quite interesting to observe as a performer.
“And when someone says: ‘Yes, I’ll come across that threshold — I’ll go onto the stage,’ you feel the whole audience shift,” Smith adds. “Until then, they’ve been watching a show. But now, it’s one of their own up there. And at the end, when the audience applauds, you can feel that it’s as much for the audience members who stepped up as it is for the performers, which is really nice. It’s a wild ride, but so much fun.”
