Review: HA HA HA HA HA HA HA at Woolly Mammoth Theatre

Steeped in a European existential sensibility, with healthy doses of theatre of the absurd, and an eerie ambience, --performance artist Julia Masli alternately entrances and provokes the audience with her finely honed comedic skills in the deliciously interactive production entitled ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

This highly unique production, now playing at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre, could definitely stand on its own as a mesmerizing, evocative, textured, and quasi –surrealistic mood piece but it is broadened out to be highly interactive ---and interesting results ensue.

Props such as a chair, a bed, a desk and ---quite pointedly (no pun intended---you must see this play to know what I mean), a prosthetic leg (which becomes an arm) all become characters in this production –which was co-directed by Ms. Masli and Kim Noble. As in the theatre of the absurd, the use of props is paramount and the commingling of these props with Ms. Masli drawing out the plights and problems of members of the audience, pave the way for gales of anxiety, laughter, and rumination.

Ms. Masli also wrote this disarming work, but a real critique of this show is challenging as so much of the show is improvised and based on audience interaction ---the evening I attended there was a bit of a thrilling anticipation each time Ms. Masli approached the apron of the stage. I never knew if she was going to simply engage an audience member, erupt into an emotional state, deliver a zany philosophical discourse, or simply gaze pensively into the air. 

Ms. Masli is a compelling admixture of the eccentricity of Ms. Havisham from Dickens’ Great Expectations, the jousting at windmills of a Don Quixote and or/a soft-spoken, ethereal yet slightly authoritarian sprite. Interactions with the audience included a person’s chair getting destroyed, a couple of tired mothers encouraged to take a rest on a bed that was provided onstage, a gentleman who confirmed that he was in love with a co-worker (he was, then, escorted up to an onstage desk –and another lonely person joined him to become a surrogate co-worker), a man who wanted to cleanse himself of a psychological state was escorted onstage and, then, instructed to take a shower  –and so forth and so on.

These interactions were managed with subtlety, quizzical stares, and brilliant “slow burns” (that would rival those of the great Bea Arthur and Jack Benny) by Ms. Masli. Laughter and cries of amazement and surprise exuded from the audience throughout the proceedings.
I felt a smattering of the influences (whether conscious or not) of author Franz Kafka (the paranoid/angst aspect), playwright Eugene Ionesco (isolation and chair metaphor), writer Samuel Beckett (alienation), and filmmaker Ingmar Bergman (the need for shared communication amidst brokenness).

A palpable sense of angst and isolation was interspersed throughout the production but, indeed, the overriding thread of the production was the sense of reaching out to a shared humanity.

Technical elements are top-notch ----three costume designers are cited in the program ---Alice Wedge, David Curtis-Ring, and Annika Thiems –all who must have contributed to the eccentric outfit of Ms. Masli which is a show unto itself. 

The lighting design by Lily Woodford was transporting and atmospheric in effect. Sound design by Alessio Festuccia was mesmerizing with an evocatively strange and haunting effect. 

Julia Masli is “one of a kind” in her performance fervor. Do not miss this unique and thought-provoking theatrical experience. Running Time: Sixty minutes with no intermission 

ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha runs though August 4, 2024 at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre located at 641 D Street, NW, Washington, DC, 20004. 

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