Zimmermann & de Perrot
"Gaff Aff"
Jerome Robbins Theater
Baryshnikov Arts Center, New York
May 6, 2010
by Tom Phillips
copyright 2010 by Tom Phillips
"Gaff Aff" is Swiss-German slang, meaning something like "staring at the monkey." Swiss artists Martin Zimmermann and Dimitri de Perrot give us a monkey, in human form, but also something like an organ grinder, who appears to be really running the show. The plot is simple, the execution complex: a man (Zimmermann) emerges from a box and takes on the accoutrements of humanity. He combs his hair and puts on a tie, waits for a bus, gets a job, repeatedly loses and finds his briefcase, shuffles papers, sucks up to the boss, yaks into a cell phone, hammers out hysterical text messages, becomes the boss and lords it over his subordinates, gets rich, builds a home, gets fat, counts his money and meditates, pets his cat, keels over and dies. All this happens at a breakneck pace among props created of cardboard, on a stage that revolves like a turntable in two concentric circles, often in opposite directions. And it is seeingly driven by an intense, almost demonic disc jockey (de Perrott) who sits next to the action, riding three turntables of his own, prompting continual twists, turns, contortions and conniptions from his partner.