bobrauschenbergamerica

Charles Mee's nonnarrative text-assemblages require a company to stage a fiercely visual event that doesn’t simply devolve into an image parade, a tricky tightrope act that has foiled many a talented group. To see it done right, hurry over to the revival of bobrauschenbergamerica, a delightful hurdy-gurdy that activates the SITI company into a charming, alchemical froth. Director Anne Bogart tumbles together the artistic and domestic tools of the midcentury—plywood, flashlights, lightbulbs, yard sales—to examine each sweet facet of the American cliché. Baffled but amused, we’re helpless when the show, like a superpower long held in check, flexes its nuclear options.—Helen Shaw