Can I Help You? July 19, 2008

Catharine Dill / Exploding Moment presents 'Can I Help You?,' an original, full length, multimedia performance compiled from outtakes of a video transcript from a medical reality TV show. The action of the video transcript takes place in a hospital's Trauma unit, and is transferred to the stage, complete with rewinds, fast-forwards and jump cuts. Multiple narratives compete for the audience's attention. The real story that patients, personnel, videographers and transcribers miss is available only to the audience and must be culled from the action that falls outside the frame of the transcript. They are given a wide breadth of material from which to glean their own narrative vision - scenes are depicted in miniature diorama, "surgery" is performed onstage using meat, the brutality of Trauma protocol is emulated with the abrupt tonal changes of live action and high-volume video.