In addition to Mistero Buffo, the Theatre Project is also staging Swept Away, a 25-minute curtain raiser conceived by performer Iosif Schneiderman and his director, Tim Chamberlain.
The Russian-born Schneiderman is also a deaf performer, but he occasionally speaks in a gruff voice that seems appropriate for his pudgy physique and pushy interaction with the audience.
"Stand up!" Schneiderman barked at me as he took a broom and swept the floor around me. These sweeping motions provide at least a lightly brushed thematic connection with Meyyappan, but they're otherwise completely distinct performers.
Swept Away has fun with the notion that a brusque everyman has been ordered to sweep the theater clean; and there's an enjoyably melodramatic confrontation between the sweeper and a verbally aggressive backstage crew member (Andrew Peters).
It's also amusing to see how the lowly sweeper treats the broom as an elegant dance partner, transforms a hanging coat into an invisible second person simply by slipping his arm through a sleeve, and plays with the circles of light produced by a flashlight. Unfortunately, the sweeping portion goes on too long and makes you want to get out a vacuum cleaner and finish the job for him.
