On Monday I sauntered off to see “Blogologues: Are You There God? It’s Me, Blogologues,” a show aiming to bring the blogosphere to life by dramatically (and I mean dramatically) enacting blog posts, Tweets, Texts From Last Night, and other “wacky” Internet material. Co-conceived and compiled by Yale alums Allison Goldberg and Jen Jamula, the Blogologues series puts on a performance every month, with a new theme and new material each time.
The theme last Monday was one of Tricycle‘s favorites: religion. And Jamula and Goldberg upped their Tricycle street cred by representing someone from the Buddhoblogosphere—none other than the be-squirrelled Buddhist himself, Kyle Lovett of the Reformed Buddhist (which is now a Men’s Rights blog, not a Buddhist blog, for the record).
Two of Lovett’s posts, “Shocking Increase in the Use of Illicit Buddhism” and “And Not a Single F*ck Was Given That Day,” were given the honored positions of opening and closing the show, sandwiching other delectable religious morsels as “Jesus Doesn’t Want Me to Shave my Legs,” “I Gave All My Money Away…Cause I Thought I Was Gonna Get Raptured?” and “The Mystery and Magic of Power Animals.” During “Shocking Increase,” Goldberg and the rest of the blog-enactors handed out these cards to the audience:
Despite being pretty funny, and a very original theater idea from Goldberg and Jamula, the lesson in “Are You There God?” was mostly in reaction. I asked Goldberg and Jamula in a phone interview before the show whether they were worried that with all this irreverent religious material, someone was going to get offended. “Religion has always been a hot topic,” responded Goldberg. “We’re not really sure how it’s going to come across. But it would be great if someone walked out.”
Nobody did. And I certainly didn’t think that I would be the one to get offended. But during the show, as the actor portraying Lovett started to caress his face with a Buddha statue, almost licking it, I found myself feeling a bit…proprietary.
If you’re in the NYC area and are interested in seeing “Blogologues,” the next show is in the end of October and will be fall-themed. Tickets are $15 and include a beer, if you haven’t taken the fifth precept. Check out Lively Production’s website for more information.