Peeling the Layers

How The Onion benefits the Theater of the Absurd.

by Lauren F. Friedman

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Published: Feb 24, 2010

Neal Santos WELL-DONE: Actors perform monologues from The Onion to support The Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium in Raw Onion: To the Rescue!!

[ beneficial brou-haha ]

With headlines like "Why Do Porn Actors Have to Use Such Foul Language?" the satirical opinion essays in The Onion are, of course, fake. But what if they weren't? What if the authors, who usually exist only as thumbnail headshots, materialized as living, breathing wackadoodles for one night only?

"There are real characters in there," says Tina Brock, the director of Raw Onion: To the Rescue!!, which — for the third year running — will have actors perform monologues lifted directly from the pages of "America's Finest News Source." "What happens if you take these people's musings and try to characterize them?" Brock asks. "What does that look like?"

In one case, it looks like Sharon Geller, who, at a recent rehearsal, radiated genuine earnestness and indignation as she delivered a series of increasingly ridiculous lines.

"You see a person who's covering her interest in porn with a doily, and that, to me, is funny," says Geller, adjusting a doily-like shawl over her shoulders. Geller has worked with Brock to conjure a proper, elderly lady who is appalled by all the cursing in the pornographic films she loves to watch. "It's gotten to the point where you can't watch a porno without being inundated by swearing," Geller's character deadpans. "Is it really necessary to resort to such foul language?"

The challenge for the actors in Raw Onion, a benefit for theater company The Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium, is to play each character with as much sincerity as they can muster. "It's a big joke, but obviously you can't play the joke," explains Brock. "The more we get hooked in on 'isn't this funny?' — the less funny it is."

The Onion essays are not serious, but Raw Onion is directed with the conceit that the monologues will be more entertaining if they are performed by characters who are at least somewhat believable. The joke becomes the absurdity of the character, not just the punch lines in the text.

This absurdity is precisely what makes The Onion a perfect fit for The IRC, whose performances draw mainly from the works of absurdist playwrights. "There are certain similarities," says Brock, explaining that in both The Onion and the Theater of the Absurd, "there's a use of language that is ridiculous."

While The Onion has broad appeal, contemporary audiences might be less familiar with the IRC's typical fare, and Raw Onion is a chance to reach potential new fans. "The absurd way that language is used [in The Onion] is really no different from what Ionesco does, or what Kafka does, or what any of the folks we do in the regular season do," says Brock. "It's just in a more modern vernacular."

(lauren.friedman@citypaper.net)

RAW ONION: To the Rescue!! Sun., Feb. 28, 6 and 8 p.m., $20, L'Etage, 624 S. Sixth St., 215-285-0472, idiopathicridiculopathyconsortium.org.

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