Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, London
July 9, 2025
Described as “a story ballet of enlightenment in two immoral acts,” No President by New York-based art and performance group Nature Theater of Oklahoma is a completely bazaar, frenzied, pornographic, nonsense show. It’s also oddly compulsive. The publicity contains warnings of self-harm, suicide, cannibalism and explicit sexual content, it is not wrong.
A cast of sixteen cavort around the stage for over two hours, without an interval. The work involved to create the piece must have been extraordinary, and the energy and commitment with which it was performed is undeniable, but I am afraid I could not comprehend the ‘why.’
Apparently, the story revolves around two out of work actors jobbing with a security firm, which is in the throes of being taken over by a rival company staffed by ex-ballet dancers, who are more up to date, faster and cheaper, and who want to take over the job at any cost.
Photo Heinrich Brinkmöller-Becker
The lead role of Mikey was performed by the incredible Ilan Bachrach. His facial expression, mimicry and self-mockery, without a word spoken, was genuinely a tour-de-force.
Elsewhere, guys and girls in body suits with strapped-on plastic penises faux masturbating, and eating each other, made a point. But again, what was that point?
An explanation (of sorts) of what is going on is provided by an extraordinary, continuous monologue from the narrator/devil, Robert M. Johnson. How he ever learned the two-hours of text is beyond me.
Photo Heinrich Brinkmöller-Becker
But what for? It feels rather like he was given the English dictionary and told to read it through from cover to cover without pausing for breath. Although he is perfectly audible and enunciated, most of the time he might as well have been speaking in foreign tongues. Fortunately, there was a screen displaying his utterings, although this did not shed light on the complete Lear-ness of what he was saying. Presumably the approach is deliberate.
After an hour of this, I found myself wanting to scream at the narrator to shut up. I didn’t of course, but another audience member was not so restrained.
No President was conceived, written and directed by Pavol Liska and Kelly Copper, with dramaturgy by Florian Malzacher. The Nature Theater of Oklahoma is an off-off-Broadway company, and is flagged as being one of the most distinctive voices in American theatre of the past decade. It may have been compulsive and memorable, but that that doesn’t go hand I hand with pleasant. As theatre experiences go, it was certainly different, though.