Goat Island's first performance work deals with the physical and mental conditioning which militarizes first the individual and then the social structure. In a large, arena performance space with the spectators seated around the four sides of the perimeter, three male performers execute a series of dance-like physical drills. Each movement has an accompanying shouted name: "Treated Like Human Beings," "Seven Packed Like Sardines," "Shake Rattle and Roll." The series repeats like variations on a theme, interspersed with first-person testimonies providing brief windows into the lives of the three men involved. After a comical, collage-like performance of a scene from the play Mister Roberts, the piece concludes with a shadowy "torture" scene, the brutal end result of the mechanisms of war.

Created by: Matthew Goulish, Lin Hixson (director), Greg McCain, Timothy McCain.

Performance History