Quentavius da Quitter (Oghenero Gbaje) and Kelly K Klarkson (Essence Lotus) work on their debut rap record in Bowl EP (photo by Carol Rosegg)
BOWL EP
Vineyard Theatre
Gertrude and Irving Dimson Theatre
108 East 15th St. between Union Square East & Irving Pl.
Tuesday – Sunday through June 22, $37.80-$106.92
www.vineyardtheatre.org
Audience members are immersed in the unique, exciting, and at times confounding world of Bowl EP as soon as they enter the Vineyard’s Gertrude and Irving Dimson Theatre, which has been reconfigured as an empty, deep, kidney-shaped swimming pool surrounded by a chain-link fence on all four sides. Thumping songs such as Young Thug’s “Money on the Dresser,” BashfortheWorld’s “50–0,” and Cortisa Star’s “Get It Down” set the mood for the eighty-minute show, which takes place “in the middle of a wasteland at the edge of the galaxy.”
Presented by the Vineyard and the National Black Theatre in association with the New Group, Bowl EP unfolds across twenty-five scenes, conceptualized as a mixtape being made by skateboarders Kelly K Klarkson (Essence Lotus) and Quentavius da Quitter (Oghenero Gbaje). The description of each track is projected into the pool in increasingly offbeat fonts, from “skating n smoking” and “a flirty interlude” to “tasting fingers” and “deepthroating.” Along the way they try to come up with a name for their group while testing out rhymes.
quentavius: “Get high to see far, you don’t know who we are / We’ll nut upon ya face and call it street art”
kelly + quentavius: “Get high to see far, you don’t know who we are / We’ll nut upon ya face and call it street art / Get high to see far, you don’t know who we are / We’ll nut upon ya face and call it street art / Get high to see far, you don’t know who we are / We’ll nut upon ya face and call it street art”
kelly: that sounds like the first track on the tape to me
quentavius: thass wassup
Their attempts at finding a name turn into funny and serious raps as well.
quentavius: the rnb divas
kelly: queens of rnb
quentavius: queens of rap
kelly: queennzzzzzz
quentavius: zthzszthszsthzszsthszsthz
kelly: the lisps
quentavius: the lisps
kelly: (yea) the lisps of pop
quentavius: the speech impediments of pop
kelly: queens of pop
quentavius: kings of pop
kelly: king of pop
quentavius: michael jackson
kelly: michael jackson’s death
quentavius: michael’s jackson doctor
kelly: michael jackson’s catheter
quentavius: michael jackson’s accusers
Quentavius (Oghenero Gbaje) and Kelly (Essence Lotus) share an apple and more in hot show at the Vineyard (photo by Carol Rosegg)
Kelly and Quentavius grow closer as they experiment with language and practice their ollies around the periphery of the pool and inside it; Quentavius gives Kelly a banana and Kelly eats it seductively, and later they share an apple that also brings them closer sexually while alluding to the Garden of Eden. They drink, snort Molly, drop acid, bite, slap, and choke each other, the danger growing, then exploding when Quentavius vomits out his personal demon, Lemon Pepper Wings (Felicia Curry), an apparent comic-con escapee with an adorably frightening giant head and cute outfit, described in the script as “a ghetto oreo femme demon clown . . . like the most enthusiastic black anime cosplay girl youve ever met. times 10.”
The arrival of Lemon Pepper Wings pumps up the volume, lifting it all to new levels. “lets get this bitch started,” LPW tells Quentavius, then asks the audience, “is yall ready for a mutha fuckin show?” LPW declares themself to be the burgeoning rap group’s manager, PR, DJ, opening act, and first groupie, igniting a fire in Kelly and Quentavius — and those watching from behind the fence.
The rap duo becomes more socially conscious, dropping heavier rhymes and finding their groove. “this song is especially great when ur insurance lapses and u cant go see ur therapist anymore / or u never had one in the first place,” Quentavius says as they work on the last track, continuing, “or when u realize psychology was a practice created by the government meant to tranquilize the masses and blanch any sense of emotional urgency from a once lively and passionate group of displaced peoples / iCarly qvc and tyler perry were created for this reason as well u might wanna google it anyways / its called word art slash soul extractor.”
Kelly and Quentavius — and the audience — start to question reality following a killer monolog delivered by LPW, a bold and beautiful evaluation of the state of the world and the future of the two rappers, delving into genius and pain, legacy and memory. It’s a glorious several minutes that alters Kelly and Quentavius’s perspective. “its just not the same,” Quentavius says.
The memorable set is by Adam Rigg and Anton Volovsek, with costumes by DeShon Elem, thumping sound by Ryan Gamblin, videos and projections by Zavier Taylor, and fight choreography and intimacy direction by Teniece Divya Johnson, so essential to the relationship between Kelly and Quentavius.
Written and directed by Nazareth Hassan (Security Theater, Slow Mania 009) and featuring music by Free Fool, Bowl EP — which really should be called Bowl LP — is an uneven but ultimately rewarding foray into love and performance, about facing one’s demons. Lotus (soft) and Gbaje (Blood Conscious) are terrific as the wannabe rappers, but Curry (Into the Woods, Until the Flood) runs away with the show as the wildly unpredictable and all-knowing Lemon Pepper Wings, a spectacularly delicious character that I hope we all don’t have lurking deep inside of us.
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]