"Snake Oil for the Lovelorn" is not a play.
"It's more like kind of a world," artistic director and actor Richard van Schouwen said. "And the experience is kind of like visiting a foreign town."
The performance is presented by q-Staff Theater. Van Schouwen, co-founder of the company, said the performance is physical theater - an evolving performance of multiple live art forms such as poetry, music, acting and dance with no script or characters.
"Opening it doesn't mean it's finished," he said. "It begins a different phase of the performance work."
"Snake Oil for the Lovelorn" premiered in Albuquerque in 2004. It has been two years since its last performance in Albuquerque. It's performed by van Schouwen, Bryan Jabaay, and Sandy Timmerman, co-founder of q-Staff Theater.
"'Snake Oil' was developed in kind of the aftermath of the Iraq War," van Schouwen said. "There was a lot of anxiety at that time because of world events. Everything felt like it was running outside of any control. Things were getting away from us, and there was this sense of ominous foreboding - kind of like storm clouds rolling in."
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Van Schouwen said that as artists, the company wanted to serve and participate in expression for the community.
"In the beginning, we found ourselves weakened, artistically, by world events, and our first order of business was to look for some sort of healing or some sort of cure to that condition so we could create and serve in that way," he said. "So, it's kind of this idea of being damaged or broken hearted and looking for some sort of way to put the pieces back together again."
Van Schouwen and Timmerman gained experience in the art form when they worked with the New York performance company Double Edge Theatre.
"They keep performances in rotation literally for years," she said. "It's fascinating to go back and see performances, some of which we helped create, grow and develop and find their life and character and subtlety."
Physical theater comes from Eastern Europe. Through Double Edge Theatre, Timmerman and van Schouwen were introduced to, and later worked with, companies in Poland, Hungary and Romania.
"The thing that is so fascinating to me about this type of work is it's so vibrant and alive," she said. "Don't get me wrong. I love script-based work. I'm a big fan, but what I sometimes see is that people are going up there and reciting lines. They don't really have a connection to the work."
Timmerman said physical theater is generated by the performers.
"We have created every single thing that's on the floor, and we have an intimate connection to it and a complete and total investment in it," she said. "So, we keep our audience numbers small, and we make sure the performance space is filled with all of these objects or pieces of art that we have collected or made. The performance happens within almost touching distance of the audience."
Van Schouwen said the latest series of "Snake Oil for the Lovelorn" includes video technology and references to current events.
"We've made some new discoveries of life here in these times, and we attempt to weave that into the score," he said.
"Snake Oil for the Lovelorn"
Today
8 p.m.
q-Staff Theater
4819 Central Ave. N.E.
Donation only
Through April 13
