Review: THE ART OF LUV (PART 1): ELLIOT, A Sacred Ritual Teaching Guys How To Score

On May 23, 2014, 22-year-old Elliot Rodger killed six people and injured thirteen others near the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara before shooting himself in the head, rather than being apprehended.

In self-shot videos, Rodger described himself as a lonely virgin who tried his best to make himself attractive to girls. He said he took the time to dress nicely, be polite and treat women respectfully, yet he's never had a girl even agree to go on a date with him. You might sympathize with the guy if he didn't also inject remarks about himself being "magnificent" and express an attitude that women owed him affection and sex just because he made an effort. He also had harsh words for boys who were sexually active with the girls they desired, claiming they were inferior men who were flaunting their success with women at him.

His act of revenge heightened the public conversation of what might be called an attitude of "nice guy privilege," a form of objectification where a male feels he's owed something for being a decent human being to women.

His attitude, and clips from one of his videos, is central to the Royal Osiris Karaoke Ensemble's ritualistic, multimedia theatre piece, THE ART OF LUV (PART 1): ELLIOT, playing at The Public Theater as part of their annual Under The Radar Festival.

Only a third of the normally three-sided Anspacher Theater space is used, with half the audience seated in traditional rows of theatre seats and the other half handed pillows and seated on the floor. (It's general admission, so come early if you have a preference.) Everyone is offered a hot towel as they enter.

Co-creators Tei Blow and Sean McElroy are already seated upstage and technical director Eben Hoffer is positioned among the pillowed set. Clad in white robes with olive leaf crowns, they appear to be partaking in an ancient ritual. Projected above them are rotating snippets from an assortment of videos. There's Rodger vowing revenge, but also men participating in workshops where they learn from women how to attract members of their sex, and a pair of body-builders advising men on workouts that will help them develop the exact type of physique women are sexually attracted to. There are also selfie videos of young women cheerfully showing off things they just bought.

Sometimes the sound is cut off and Blow and McElroy provide the narratives. When their faces are also projected, we can see they wear gold makeup. The rituals they perform eventually include Blow eating sushi off of McElroy's bare chest. (In actuality, there are venues where men eat sushi off of nude women.)

The sixty minute performance appears to be a darkly satirical condemnation of the big business of helping men learn how to make women want to have sex with them; the ancient ritualistic dressing giving the appearance of legitimacy. These businesses rely on a vision of women as rewards for following their guaranteed instructions and will feed minds like Rodger's with false promises of success.

The absurdity of some of the videos, and the live rituals that accompany them, would seem rather funny if it weren't for the knowledge of what happened on May 23rd. Whenever Elliot Rodger appears on the screen, it's an unsettling reminder that these men who think they're learning the art of luv are actually learning the art of rape culture.

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