Frankie Placidi

"The Kick Inside," an experimental, surrealist assemblage conceived and directed by Nicolás Noreña with his Brooklyn-based company The Million Underscores, has all the ingredients of an intriguing theatrical experiment. What it too rarely has is the sense that those ingredients have been made into a satisfying whole. Inspired loosely by Kate Bush’s 1978 debut album of the same name, the production is an elaborate exercise in the exquisite-corpse tradition, bringing together thirteen New York playwrights, including the late Richard Foreman, whose presence feels particularly appropriate to a work that seems determined to test just how much eccentricity an audience can absorb before its capacity for wonder gives way to bewilderment. [more]