Kerr, a performance artist, doesn\u2019t care if her work is enjoyable. Art is an act of will.<\/p>\n
\u201cI dreamed not of entertaining an audience, but attacking it,\u201d she says. \u201cI dreamed of audiences heroic enough to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Inspired by the Futurists of the early 20th century, Kerr devises a piece in which the audience will remove her clothing one piece at a time until she is \u201cbuck naked.\u201d All the while she recites the Song of Solomon, from the Old Testament.<\/p>\n
Stripped down to bare flesh, \u201cI never felt more essentially beautiful,\u201d says Kerr, played by Elizabeth Ledo. She stretches her arms out, Christlike, as gentle music plays.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n Elizabeth Ledo plays all the parts in Lee Blessing’s “Chesapeake,” produced by Two Crows Theatre Co. Christopher R. Dunham designed the set at the Slowpoke Lounge & Cabaret.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n These themes \u2014 of our animal nature, of resurrection, of grace \u2014 echo through \u201cChesapeake,\u201d a 1999 play by Lee Blessing (\u201cGoing to St. Ives,\u201d \u201cA Walk in the Woods\u201d).<\/p>\n Ledo, a familiar face from American Players Theatre, performs this solo show through April 26 at the Slowpoke Lounge & Cabaret in Spring Green. It is the final play in Two Crows Theatre\u2019s season, and though it\u2019s broadly comic in places, the sinister undertones fit Two Crows\u2019 intimate, unsettling vibe.<\/p>\n The title \u201cChesapeake\u201d refers both to the bay on the Atlantic and a dark brown retriever named Lord Ratliff of Luckymore, Rat or Lucky for short. Lucky is the \u201cmost effective political pet in the entire Congress.\u201d He\u2019s been essential to the campaign of Therm Pooley, a hateful Southern senator.<\/p>\n When Pooley uses Kerr\u2019s Song of Solomon striptease as a political bargaining chip, coasting to a win on allegations of \u201cpo-or-nography,\u201d Kerr devises a dognapping in retaliation. She will retrain Lucky to love her best, document the whole thing and make that the centerpiece of her next show. It will be a \u201creal-life protest.\u201d<\/p>\n Ledo has such an impish quality to her, one that has for several summers now made her fantastic to watch in Shakespearean bit parts \u2014 she\u2019s a scene-stealer. Directed by Marcus Truschinski with incrementally increasing tension, Ledo\u2019s eyes flash as Kerr plots her next move, delighting in her own ingenuity.<\/p>\n Over nearly two hours, Ledo wraps herself in the greatest performance of Kerr\u2019s life. Sliding sideways into various accents, she embodies the molasses-mouthed senator, his icily ambitious wife, the good Christian assistant who\u2019s sleeping with the senator, and Lucky himself.<\/p>\n Watching Ledo lick and wag as she waxes poetic about her \u201csuperpower\u201d sense of smell (\u201clike a library\u201d) feels like watching the best storytellers we\u2019d get as kids. The world has gone sideways but here, listen, come along \u2014 the tale is a leash, pulling us forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Elizabeth Ledo plays Kerr, a performance artist, among other roles in “Chesapeake.”\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n
\n HANNAH JO ANDERSON<\/span>
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