‘The Myopia” is sup posed to be a clear- eyed look at theater, but only the truly pretentious will see it that way.
So dense is David Greenspan’s theatrical collage — which touches on the political machinations of Warren G. Harding, the philosophy of Aristotle and more — that you feel compelled to present your academic credentials on the way in.
Dubbed “An Epic Burlesque of Tragic Proportions,” the evening isn’t without its entertaining moments, thanks to its charismatic writer/performer. Playing dozens of roles, including a “doppelganger” with an uncanny resemblance to Carol Channing, Greenspan is mesmerizing even when his obscure text defies comprehension.
Sitting in an armchair, he narrates and performs the piece, which involves a writer, Bradley, struggling to complete his father’s unfinished musical about Harding. Along the way, we’re presented with episodes from the father’s unhappy marriage.
Greenspan provides an ironic commentary on theatrical conventions even while indulging in its more hoity-toity aspects. The results too often resemble an ambitious grad-school exercise that seems far too pleased with itself. Fittingly, the piece is being done in repertory with “Plays,” a performance of Gertrude Stein’s celebrated lecture about the theater.
Greenspan delivers such declarations as “Knowing is what you know and in asking these questions although there is no one who answers these questions there is in them that there is knowledge” in an ironic style that produces more belly laughs than Stein probably intended.