Acrobats and Line.

Line ~ One by one a group of unacquainted people come together to form a line for some unnamed, upcoming event. The first to arrive is a burly, beer-drinking, sweat-shirted "middle American," then an alienated, voluble, Mozart-loving youth; a taciturn type who brings his own folding stool; and, finally, a shapely, promiscuous girl and her spineless, older husband. Gradually inexorably, the struggle for first place begins, and as they lie, cheat, wrestle and push to gain the lead spot an extraordinary panorama of human frailty is made explosively and hilariously real. As, in the end, are the deviousness, the competitiveness, and the pettiness of the small, wasting battles with which we litter our lives. Hailed as a masterpiece of the new theater in its successful Off-Broadway production (in tandem with Acrobats) this strikingly original and perceptive allegory brilliantly evokes the humor, pathos, mistrust and vulnerability of the human condition in the casual circumstance of a group of disparate people waiting in line for some unspecified event. Acrobats ~ Two acrobats go valiantly through the complexities of their routine, smiling toothily, bowing on cue, and, all the while, conducting a sotto voce but lacerating marital spat. He threatens to drop her, she vows to leave him - but then the lights come up, the final bows are taken, and, subtly but surely, we are aware that their mutual dependency is still stronger than the tensions which have been so wittily and amusingly exposed. A perfect curtain-raiser, this clever, whimsical playlet, which was presented Off-Broadway on a double bill with Line, depicts two "acrobats" engaged in a running marital feud while, at the same time, going through the intricacies of their routine.