Back to the Neo-Future:

Examining the longest-running play in Chicago, the Neo-Futurists’ “Too much light makes the baby go blind”

By Paul M. Banks

To say that the Neo-Futurists “Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind” is a Chicago institution on par with deep dish pizza or Mike Ditka would be wrong for a couple of reasons.

First, we’ve all heard enough Chicago cultural contributions compared to these two institutions before. Secondly, TMLMTBGB is way too unique of a show to be classified by cliché.

The play’s highly unusual title is derived from an autistic case study of a patient who constantly repeated that phrase. Creator Greg Allen was once told by his college professor that naming a play after this quote was a horrible idea. Considering how the first performance occurred 18 years ago, on Dec. 2, 1988, and “Too much light,” with its ever-changing cast, is the city’s longest running show today, it’s safe to say that Allen was right. According to their homepage’s description, “the single unifying element of these plays is that they are performed from a perspective of absolute honesty. We always appear as ourselves on stage, speaking directly from our personal experiences. Each short play is written by a performer, honed by the ensemble, and randomly collaged with twenty-nine other plays through high-energy audience participation. Each week, these plays shift as ensemble members add new plays to the existing body of work.”

 

What is Neo-Futurism?

I asked managing director Lindsay Muscato for her definition of neo-futurism: “Creating something really accessible and creative, but very true as well, with the ultimate purpose of truly connecting the audience to the artist.”

In the words of Sharon Greene, artistic director and performer: “At the Neo-Futurist Theatre, an actor is an autonomous, powerful artist instead of a commodity. Writing can be a very lonely life, and the psychological component needed to survive is to have other artists you respect that you can show your work to. With the immediate audience feedback on Friday night, you know right away if the play you wrote and pitched on Tuesday works or not; and for 4-6 weeks, it’s in the show.”

Greene later elaborated on the aesthetic development of the performers: “At the Neo-Futurarium, we work together and support each other. Writer-performers enter as early career artists, and leave as mid-career artists.”

The Cal Ripken of the Chicago stage begins with all audience members being given a “menu,” which, in the words of performer Steve Mosqueda, “when folded in half, fits ergonomically right in your forearm.”

The menu lists the title and number of the 30 plays to be performed in 60 minutes. Audience participation determines the order of presentation. Yelling of the word “curtain” ends one play and transitions to the next. A clothesline above keeps track of what plays have been selected. Audience interactivity is crucial to every performance, and show-goers were featured prominently in No. 15: “Unrequited fear,” No. 9: “Get on your ass and lasso,” and No. 25: “Two-minute strip rock paper scissors.”

“The play is new to us every week, and that keeps it exciting for people who come to experience the show again and again,” Greene says. Titles can be extremely short and concrete, like No. 11: “The beet play.” It featured a vegetable-themed dance number and the “Give me a beat” intro from Janet Jackson’s hit song “Nasty Boys.” This was reminiscent of the previous performance I attended. In 2003, “Literal music video” featured a Neo-Futurist following the instructions of Ace of Base’s “Don’t Turn Around.”

Titles can also be very long, like No. 10: “Wedding gifts from my Uncle Joel, a retired hot tub salesman with a Santana cover band in Vegas,” a play that Greene wrote and in which she performed the line: “We’re Jewish. We’re not supposed to believe in angels; or blondes.”

 

A rotation full of lefties

“We run the full gamut from actual Communists to just liberal,” Greene says jokingly before adding that there are actual moderates within the community. “We’ve offended people enough to contact us, and we considered putting a disclaimer for the show warning that people might be exposed to views contrasting their own. It just shows you how bad the culture wars have gotten. We work without censorship, so the media and even Comedy Central can’t respond to what’s going on in the world during that week in the ways we can. It’s a huge gift. We stand up and say ‘This is what I personally believe; not everyone has to believe this, but I do.’ ”

In this “Leftorium” of ideological expression, some plays such as No. 8: “Who’s on Fire?” take the extensively detailed and informative approach. This particular play poignantly points out the definition of civil war and how the mainstream media has acquiesced to the wishes of the state by eliminating the phrase from their coverage of the war. What makes this funny for the audience is the way a Vaudeville duo in bowling hats explains it to them. Aside from the animated series “Family Guy,” vaudeville has pretty much gone overlooked in contemporary pop culture. This is unfortunate, given how much the old stage standard influenced American entertainment today.

No. 16: “Date and time” takes a different and minimalist approach toward making a political statement. It simply tells us the current time in Chicago, Washington D.C., Baghdad and Kabul, as well as the number of days remaining until the mid-term elections in November and Presidential election in 2008.

In the book “Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs,” writer Chuck Klosterman gives a “needlessly cynical” definition of postmodernism: “Art that is conscious of the fact that it is, in fact, product.” A perfect example is No. 14: “Hey kidz buy this play.” The play is a critique on crass consumerism despite having obvious commercial overtones itself. Speaking of definitions, No. 4: “The Neo-Futurists sing samples from their latest album, songs from the dictionary, look it up” has another political message. This show has humor, drama, spontaneity, interactive fun, social critique, self-reflection and free pizza on nights when they sell out. Of course, by “sell out” I mean admission tickets, not compromising one’s creative integrity for financial gain. I have to clarify that because crazy things can happen when you are too literal (or not literal enough) around these people.

The Neo-Futurarium is located at 5153 N. Ashland, near Foster. Tickets are $7 + ($1 x the roll of a single six-sided die) or $8-$13, depending on serendipity.
Shows are on Friday and Saturday at 11:30 p.m. and Sunday at 7 p.m.
For more information, visit www.neofuturists.org/shows/tmlmtbgb.htm or call the show hotline at (773) 275-5255.

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