Word: hollowmen
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...Eliot '09. Not only did he go to Harvard, but this year was kicked off with a rocking rendition of "The Hollow Men," entitled "The Hollowmen," performed by Erik Amblad...
Eliot's poem is a fairly short one, and all of "The Hollowmen" comes in at under 45 minutes. But in that time, artistic director Mark O'Maley does just about everything you can do with a stage draped in tinfoil, a strobe light and an actor in a metallic suit. Briefly, what happens is this: as the poem is heard on the sound track--mixed and looped, sped up and slowed down, intermingled with classical music, rock, and a pounding techno beat--Erik Amblad performs a highly elaborate pantomime, in which his only prop is a large red chair...
Once the spectacle of "The Hollowmen" has been duly appreciated, however, there are still some important questions to be asked. For example: why this poem, when the music and action have almost nothing to do with the text's mood and meaning? It quickly becomes clear that the spirit of "The Hollowmen" is based on a shallow, but understandable, misinterpretation of the poem, whose repetition of certain apocalyptic words and images--"broken," "death," "dream," "hollow"--can make it seem merely psychedelic, the precursor of Jim Morrison's lyrics...
...Waste Land" and as the first stirring of Eliot's Anglican religious poetry. Some of the images Eliot uses--such as the "multifoliate rose" and the quotations from liturgy--prefigure his highly devout late poems, the "Four Quartets." That's certainly not the idea that one gets from "The Hollowmen," which, as far as I could make out, doesn't actually include the entire poem, instead focusing on some of its most vivid, garish passages...
...Hollowmen" doesn't have the sophistication, or the rewards, of "The Hollow Men." For that matter, it doesn't offer the conventional pleasures of a play, or the concision and fluidity of a music video. What it does provide is live spectacle, tremendous technical accomplishment, and a trippy atmosphere. Which isn't bad for 45 minutes, and the first week of school...