A few weeks ago I posted an announcement for a new theater company in Milwaukee called The Young Theologians (Mitt Babydoll and M. Casanova) and their new short play “PERHAPS”. The synopsis stated “…an original short play about a Mother and Father who are raising their twins in separate public restrooms. Mother with Daughter. Father with Son.” A number of you expressed some interest or at least some curiosity and I tried to reach out to the group but didn’t receive any response.
The dates for PERHAPS were this past weekend, July 10th through 12th, 2026. I was otherwise booked those first two days so decided to take in the show on Sunday night. But when I went to the Mitchell Street Arts webpage to check the start time, the event was no longer on their calendar. My first instinct was it had been canceled but being stubborn I decided to go anyway just to see. And at this point, I am going to quote from Nate Burger’s adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya:
Absurdity Is The Human Condition!
So as I pulled up across the street from Mitchell Street Arts, I saw Casanova holding a sign with Perhaps written on it and an arrow. So I walked across the street to talk with him. I told him that the website no longer had the play listed and he said that there was a whole back story about that for another time. Then he explained to me that the event would take place across the street in an empty parking lot inside the U-haul trailer that was parked there. I could see Babydoll standing next to it. Then, two young women from Appleton joined us. They had been sent invites and were intrigued. So I guided them across the street to the trailer. Babydoll met us and offered us programs and bottles of water and seats on white plastic lawn chairs that were lined up against the wall of the adjacent building. And there sat a 4 by 8 closed U-haul trailer with the rear doors removed and a curtain draped across the opening that was stenciled Perhaps. So I grabbed a chair and moved it over in front to the curtain wanting to get the best seat in front of the play. Another couple joined us and we talked a bit and looked over our programs waiting for the play to begin. And just a few minutes before 8 PM, we could hear David Bowie’s original rendition of The Man Who Sold The World. Just as it was ending, Casanova approached, opened the curtain, and invited us to find a seat INSIDE the trailer on the cushions spread along one side wall and the back wall. Thankfully there were only five of us, a sixth would have fit but we would really need to be friends! So those chairs were just the lobby seating. And down the rabbit hole we go!
This paragraph is purely conjecture. And I haven’t had a chance to confirm it with the Young Theologians. But after losing access to the Mitchell Street Arts facility, I am guessing that this is Plan B. Otherwise I expect we would have had a live theatrical performance instead. And given that the program lists four actors assigned to the four roles and those actors were present at the end of the evening kinda confirm this for me. I truly regret that I wasn’t able to stay and talk with that cast Sunday evening. Because I have questions, lots and lots of questions. Now on to the my experience in the U-Haul!
At 8 PM, Casanova stationed a laptop computer on the lid of a toilet situated in the corner of the trailer near the door. He then started a video. And the five of us quietly sat carefully on the floor and watched the video unfold. This is a black and white video except for a few moments near the end…which kinda reminded me of Mel Brooks’ Silent Movie where the only word spoken aloud is Hello by Marcel Marceau. And maybe a bit of some of Andy Warhol’s work (screen test and Empire State building), or William Wegman’s dogs videos, ( with Fay Ray and Man Ray), and maybe Mark Borchardt? Or maybe a pseudo-documentary. These comments are aimed at the film and not the performance which will be outlined below. And like every great epic though, we had a ten minute intermission…although that would be a live theater perk as well.
Now lets take a peek at the playbill posted above. Reading the right hand page bottom to top: Yes, let’s not piss in the trailer, aina? But that’s more an aside to the intended location of the action. But it is a video, so the actors are not here…although they were later. The rehearsals are the performance. Yes, that seems to be the case as the video was stitched together from a variety of rehearsal scenes and staged readings. The set is a set up. Well, yes or no? The set on film was utilizing an actual space, likely an industrial washroom/lavatory space. But for our actual experience is the U-haul, toilet, and laptop our set set-up? The costumes are not worn: no, these being rehearsal videos the actors are wearing street clothes it would seem. This is a play on a play? Well our participation itself would seem to be a play on this play (which is a video on a play) for “All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women are merely players;“.
Now, on with the story. But first, despite the cast being listed as a father, mother, daughter, and son, there are no child actors involved. All roles are filled by adults. And although the named roles imply gender, the actual assignment of actors is gender neutral…and seemingly random. Father from one scene may be mother in another, son in one is daughter in the next, etc. I didn’t count but there were more than four actors overall including Casanova in one scene. And all of this gets even more interesting later in the play as you will see.
Opening scene involves a small hall area with a lot of banging on a door someways off. Father and mother burst in frantically and father suggests that they split up and hide in the adjacent men’s and women’s rooms taking their same gender twin child with them. So exit stage left and stage right with the little bundles of joy that they are carrying just before a police officer also bursts in but finding no one in the hall shrugs and exits. And then we see each parent miming feeding their child with an imagined spoon and later bathing them in a utility sink (similar to the one in your basement that your washing machine empties into). The infants at this point seem to be wrapped in aprons with ties so they can be secured. And when bathed they appear to actually be clear plastic water balloons about a liter in volume. Some of this action happens with focus on one parent only and at times split screen. I find it a bit amusing that given a later scene is titled BURP, that neither parent burps their infant. End Act I!
Act II finds the twins are now teenagers. And each parent is trying to teach them to be adult human beings including gender roles like Father teaching Son to shave. And at some point Father and Mother have discovered adjoining toilet stalls that allow them to shout conversations at each other over the wall. And we discover that they have been hiding and residing in these bathrooms for 17 years. Now the question of gender becomes a focus of our play as Father suggests that they got the twins mixed up when they split up because Son peed sitting down. And later Son wants to shave his armpits. Mother ignores this until Daughter starts taking delight in making the loudest burps possible. So our suspension of disbelief is being sorely tried here. Remember above when the parents bathed their infant? And given the lack of social interactions and exposure to cultural norms, why wouldn’t a 17 year old want to experiment? And no one else ever needs to use the restroom? But they convince themselves that they have made a mistake in who is Son and who is Daughter.
So the final decision is for Father to send Son to Mother’s restroom and Mother to send Daughter to stay with Father. So we see a solo Father waiting impatiently until the door opens and instead of Daughter, in walks Mother and they have a REUNION! Fini!
Absurdity Is The Human Condition! Yes, PERHAPS is absurdist to the max and I find it remarkably like much of Samuel Beckett…maybe most like Endgame or Happy Days. Very common ordinary people in seemingly extraordinary situations repeating personal rituals in dystopian environments over and over again. With the dialogue descriptive of the action in a way but without any real semblance of meaning. And we never really know how they got here or why they accept their plight so readily. But being a child of the 1960s/ 70s, I have seen some of this before in any number of experimental theater, or films, or happenings of the period. I may have been guilty of one in art class called Edifice Wrecks.
As I stated above, this was a collection of videos of rehearsals and stage readings. I wouldn’t be surprised that once the Young Theologians find a performance venue, that they stage this as a live performance. I will be watching for it.
