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IMPRESSIONS: Ivo Dimchev's "In Hell with Jesus/Top 40" at La MaMa Etc.
By Robert Johnson
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Published on December 9, 2023
Photo courtesy of Ivo Dimchev
Writer, Choreographer and Director: Ivo Dimchev
Performers: Ivo Dimchev, Andrew Fremont Smith, Cassondra James Kellam, Xavier Smith, and Chris Tanner
Musician and sound effects: Louis Schwadron
Set and costume design: Ivo Dimchev
Light designer and operator: Dalton Lapree-Chavez
Sound supervisor: Diego de las Heras
Projection design: Pearse Redmond
Presenter: La MaMa Etc
Dates: November 16 - 26, 2023
“Shitting, or vomiting?” Ivo Dimchev asks. He simply wants to know his audience’s preference; there are no wrong answers to the many questions this performance artist poses in his ribald and subversive cabaret act In Hell with Jesus/Top 40, which received a pungent airing on November 18, at La MaMa Etc's Downstairs theater.
Carrying a small notebook, Dimchev is mild-mannered and reacts with polite interest as we raise our hands to vote, taking the audience’s temperature on matters spiritual and political. “In Hell with Jesus, or in Heaven with Trump?” he inquires innocently. Only once does Dimchev express disbelief at our response. “Liars!” he calls us, relishing our deceit, when, given a choice between “dirty cock, or dirty dishes” the majority profess a fondness for housework. How demure! As Dimchev’s fellow cast member, Xavier Smith, explains, logically we should choose the cock, since it is easier to wash than a stack of plates.
Ivo Dimchev and Chris Tanner. Photo courtesy of the artist
Smith’s labor-saving attitude comes as no surprise. In Hell with Jesus is filled with songs (the “Top 40” of the title) whose gentle melodies belie their obscene lyrics; but it is also filled with materialistic calculations and proposals of various kinds. Given a singular alternative, lovely Cassondra James Kellam reasons that she would rather fuck The Beatles because there are more of them.
In Hell with Jesus is partly modeled on that American TV staple, the Game Show, with its promise of momentary stardom and its celebration of avarice. Only the flashing lights are missing. Dimchev recruits volunteers from the audience, paying them in cash or merchandise to take pictures, or read lines. The top fees go to those who strip naked and frolic on a pair of bouncy mattresses. Some are eager to join the party, and, after each skit, they line up to collect the swag. Scenes where we see Dimchev negotiating a gig for his company in Copenhagen require more intimate transactions. The hapless artist must service both the presenter, and the leering technical director (Chris Tanner), the latter citing a list of famous choreographers who supposedly dropped to their knees in exchange for a rehearsal with lighting cues. Dimchev weakly tries to argue with him, but then his mouth becomes too full to protest.
God would forgive this poor man, perhaps, if only he could bring a completed show to the stage. The subject of In Hell with Jesus, we are told, is a mass shooting during a birthday party at a gay bar, but we never get beyond auditions and contract negotiations. Dimchev knows that in today’s theater, process is all that matters. As it is, he risks his life just trying to direct. In Copenhagen, theater critic Olga Lutzi accuses him of being too controlling. “It’s time for you to think of yourself as nothing. Stop thinking of yourself as an artist,” she tells him — after she has shot him dead.
Which brings us to the crux of the matter. Lonely people still flock to the city to meet others like themselves, and find communion in the hyper-reality of the theater. They become greedy for “unique, fucked up, unforgettable cultural experiences,” as Dimchev puts it. Today, however, you would have to be fresh off the bus from Branson, MO, to find anything in our theaters truly eye-opening or offensive. The rest of us are jaded. So many bad boys have come and gone. Almost 50 years after the release of Pasolini’s Salò, what New York audience will be frightened by a dildo? Only the mainstream media can still trigger outrage by pulling the rip-cord of political correctness.
Audience members. Photo courtesy of the artist
Yet a bombshell question remains that Ivo Dimchev can only ask obliquely. In one scene of In Hell with Jesus, he instructs a volunteer to writhe on the floor pretending to suffocate, while another one crawls around him on all fours whispering the words, “Respect art!” Dimchev is sending up the avant-garde; daring us to respect the provocations and transgressions that have grown so stale, even while he dares us not to respect them. The question is, do we respect art, or don’t we? Are we just cynics looking for a salacious thrill? Dimchev is so seductive, it would be easy to surrender to his nihilism.
Fortunately, there is no need. The world is full of genuinely brilliant, humanistic art we can admire and love.
