TATS: The Experience

TATS: The Experience : Kat Reynolds and Colleen Hammond Whitmore have composed a fantastic paean to one of the oldest counter-culture-slash-sub-culture art forms in Western society - the Tattoo. A fully-fleshed out (pun intended) multi-media performance extravaganza, "Tats: The Experience" incorporates dance, theatre, puppetry, and body art in a fluid, yet surprisingly character-driven script. The play (though, truthfully, it is much more of an event than a play) primarily follows Mattie, along with Len, Dinah, Nash, Ansley, Sue and more, as they explore the motivations, causes, feelings, and reactions to the body art which they, or their friends have obtained. While the individual tattoos and body art are the primary characters here (make no mistake, this is NOT Death of a Salesman), the script still manages to follow (believably, heartwarmingly, and hilariously at times), the stories of 16 characters (all played by 7 actors), who have (or have witnessed) said tattoos. As performance art, the script excels. It allows ample room for choreography, music, dance, shadow-puppets, actual puppets, beautiful set designs and multi-media imagery galore. But as a play, it accomplishes even more. It actually gives us people to care about. Real human characters who can interact with the dancing, the music, the shadow puppets, etc, and not be... well, "overshadowed" by the imagery. As I read through the script, I laughed, I grew thoughtful, I felt genuine sympathy, and I found myself understanding and accepting tattoos in a way I had never thought before. This play truly is an "experience" - both for those beTATted and non-beTATted alike." Daniel Guyton