It’s hard to believe that Eyes and the Object, a new play by Loosen the Noose Productions, grew out of an improv exercise using Maritime ghost stories and legends. “It’s an original idea from the ground up,” says Mike McLeod, who plays Calvin Ballard, a modern-day DaVinci who’s a painter, inventor and the youngest recipient of the Nobel Prize for physics. The idea “organically changed direction” for collaborators McLeod, Margaret Legere and Melissa Noonan, and became more of a metaphysical exploration: Ballard’s obsession with his work is isolating and soon, he only speaks to a woman he believes is “trapped in another dimension.”
Other collaborators include artists Jamie Stevens, Sarah Jean Jones and Rebecca O‘Rourke, with music by Michael Legere. There’s another silent character in the production too—-Ballard refuses to leave his studio, which is perfectly cast by the rough-hewn Shakespeare By The Sea building in Point Pleasant Park. “The space really lends itself to his sense of isolation,” says McLeod.
Eyes and the Object runs March 15 (PWYC) to March 20, 8pm with a 2pm Saturday matinee. Tickets are $15-$10, email tickets@loosenthenooseproductions.com or call 402-6764.
This article appears in Mar 11-17, 2010.