I love his stuff. My wife strongly dislikes it. It’s difficult to imagine someone having an impression of his work that isn’t one of two extremes. Peter J. Woods’ stage performance work is a great deal of fun for me. I imagine there are rather large audiences which might find it tedious, boring or even pretentious.
Woods’ experimental work mixes live performance with art noise and various other bits of impression to fuse together into a wholly unique experience. I really wish more people were doing this sort of thing. I’ve seen a few performances by Woods himself and a couple of plays he’s written in production (s0me shorts of which formed some of the most interesting stuff Pink Banana Theatre ever staged.) The fact that I have a stronger impression of his work than I do of...most theatre companies in town is testament to just how unique his stuff is. It's material that bypasses traditional ways of interpreting art and dives into something a lot more abstract and a lot more interesting than traditional narrative theatre.
This May, Woods surfaces again for INOVA’s SENSORIA: Experiments in Time-Based Media and Performance. Woods will be doing a brand new piece on May 21 at 7:00 p.m. The performance takes place at INOVA on 2155 N. Prospect Ave.
From the official promo text:
“Woods’ solo work resides within its own universe. Pulling equally from the worlds of harsh noise and absurdist theatre, Woods’ performances build a sense of terror and existential dread from simple imagery, muted text and an unpredictable barrage of silence and sound. Woods will be premiering a new work this evening.
