Portland s Mad Horse Theatre continues its commitment to new plays by company members during the pandemic. THIS IS JUST INTERMISSION by Jared Mongeau is a one-character absurdist musing on the isolation of the pandemic.
Mongeau s forty-minute video is styled in the tradition of mime, featuring his protagonist, Bloomers LeFaye engaged in a series of clown circus gags, all set i9n a white-walled room with a closet that opens and closes, reinforcing the feeling of Sartrian No Exit. Silence is the prevailing mode for most of the video, though occasional sound effects and music, as well as one brief speaking interlude constitute the soundscape. There is an existential emptiness to the piece and, I might add, a heavy overlay of ennui, both intended no doubt by Mongeau.