The Empire Builders

Through Feb. 27, $20, Walnut Street Theatre Studio 5, 825 Walnut St., 215-285-0472, idiopathicridiculopathyconsortium.org.

by A.D. Amorosi

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Published: Feb 9, 2011

[ theater ]

When it comes to theater of the absurd, Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium has it covered. The ensemble, most recently lauded for its woolly take on The Madwoman of Chaillot, looks for the ridiculously complex, sad and tragic ways in which we cope with the crisis of living. "There is release and a freedom in that," says IRC producing artistic director Tina Brock, who'll oversee the company's new take on late French poet/playwright Boris Vian's 1959 epic The Empire Builders. "Another theme often dealt with in absurd works is the problem of communication — how language can be inefficient and insufficient as a tool. What's funny to me is the minutiae that becomes monumentally important to these characters.." In Empire, a family unable to embrace their fears create a Tower of Babble to outrun it instead. Yet fear awaits them at each step. Anxieties worn on their sleeves, they make a mess of everything. Brock puts it into perspective: " Empire is part Family Guy, part Addams Family, part Roadrunner cartoon with a dash of Samuel Beckett and John Waters thrown in." Absurd, indeed.

Through Feb. 27, $20, Walnut Street Theatre Studio 5, 825 Walnut St., 215-285-0472, idiopathicridiculopathyconsortium.org.

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