By Venus Zarris

TUTA is a theatre company that is so gifted, you can recognize the remarkable talent the minute that you step foot into the theater. The reality of their plays is visually rendered to perfection and the psychological atmosphere is present as soon as the production begins. TUTA is both an intellectually impressive and emotionally evocative theatrical force.

TUTA is also a company that takes chances, expands the parameters of the work that they produce. Oftentimes this proves to be uniquely rewarding. Although their production of The Wedding is signature TUTA, filled with elements that are extraordinary in their own right, the deviation from the original material takes the weight and wind out of Bertolt Brecht’s sociopolitical polemic.

The Wedding is an amalgam of dysfunction. Guests converge on the home of a newlywed couple to celebrate the nuptials and their actions rival, if not surpass, any family breakdowns that can be found at such events. Pointlessly longwinded diatribes by the aging family patriarch, wine cellar depleting over intoxications, inappropriate flirtations that escalate to dry-humping and overall sophomoric pettiness suspend this gathering in a purgatorial nightmare of crass conduct.

Jesse Terril’s original music infuses The Wedding with its most entertaining moments. Since nothing is too unusual for this gathering of absurd characters, musical numbers are natural to the unnatural order of things. It highlights their self-absorption. It illustrates their disregard for propriety and their decent into hedonism. There is little to no challenge for the audience to believe that these folks could spontaneously break out into song and dance, fully orchestrating their own instrumental accompaniment. The challenge for the audience, however, comes in caring about anyone at the party or gleaning any significance to their unapologetic naughtiness.

There are barely any indicators of whom these characters represent and what standards they are making a mockery of. The satire and parody are lost, leaving only people behaving badly, very badly.

Still there is salvation to the experience. The ensemble is so talented and invested in the chaos that, despite our lack of connection to them, we can’t help but be amused by the spectacle they so completely create. They are working overtime at a dead-end proposition and the efforts strangely pay off.

The entire cast delivers shining moments of interest in the dark abyss of this shallow, albeit lively, conceptualization but it is Andy Hager that stands out as particularly captivating. Hager’s physical comedy is classic. He fluctuates effortlessly between bravado and foolishness. His characterization is confidently and precisely idiotic. His performance of a seemingly one-dimensional party guest is textured with preposterously enthusiastic nuance, balls-out badness and subtle sweetness.

Marin Andrew’s set design makes remarkable and wonderfully stylized use of the basement space at the Chopin. Keith Parham’s lighting design is exceptional. Natasha Vuchurovich Djukic’s costume design is lovely and Ben Harris’s musical direction is inspired.

Director Zeljko Djukic has created a marvel of impressive theatrics that lead to nowhere. When a company that is this gifted produces an interpretation of a script that is this stingy on connection to the subversive commentary of the text, you feel that you are watching a trial run of the real thing. Nonetheless, the stunning and sophisticated imagination behind this show, on and off stage, is fascinating. Mercifully running at just over an hour, TUTA’s The Wedding is a beautifully crafted theatrical experiment that comes to no conclusion but provides a good time in the process.

3 STARS

(“The Wedding” runs through February 14, at the Chopin Studio Theatre, 1543 W. Division St. 847-217-0691)

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