Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
Arts & Entertainment
Opinionist: <em>Whatever, Heaven Allows</em>
By
John Del Signore
Published Feb 28, 2010
Modified Feb 28, 2010
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
By
John Del Signore
Published Feb 28, 2010
Modified Feb 28, 2010
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
After over a decade of cultural dumpster diving on the Brooklyn bohemian fringe, Radiohole, New York's most deliriously debauched theater company, has babies to look out for. Two of the troupe's founding members, Erin Douglass and Maggie Hoffman, are recent moms, and the trademark bucket of beer, set out for the audience at each performance, is now accompanied by a plea for donations to their "Beers for Babies" fund. (They say the money goes for child-care, not kegs for kids.) So it makes a certain amount of sense for Radiohole, whose bracing productions are often accompanied by a chaser of self-referential surrealism, to take inspiration from the Eisenhower-era domestic melodramas of Douglas Sirk, namely his 1955 film All That Heaven Allows.
Cleverly titled Whatever, Heaven Allows, the show is very much of a piece with Radiohole's febrile, non-narrative aesthetic, which defies easy description. The evening begins with the frenzied, fascinating Eric Dyer grabbing a microphone and addressing the audience with a passage from John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost, which might have been mesmerizing if some ingrate in the fourth row hadn't chosen that moment to rustle through a plastic bag for some all-important item. But it also illustrated what makes Dyer such an exciting performer; never one to ignore what's going on in the room, he paused, glaring furiously at the man, and finally sneered, "Got it?!"
At turns incantatory and indulgent, Whatever, Heaven Allows mixes colorful video projection with bizarro song and dance numbers, baffling non sequiturs, cocktail party chatter, mixed-gender wrestling, and a very, very loose, ironic re-enactment of the main plot points of Sirk's melodrama. Here, Milton's Eden is ironically transposed as an affluent '50s suburbia threatened by the Tree of Knowledge, in this case a widowed housewife's frowned-upon affair with her gardener. Hoffman has a hilarious solo rendition of "I Am Woman Hear Me Roar," while Joe Silovsky delivers a deliciously jittery portrait of latent homosexuality.
There are moments of great physical comedy (nobody runs laps around a theater like high-steppin' Eric Dyer) and Radiohole's signature obsession with gluttonous food splatter endures, though the first couple rows might want to bring ponchos for this installment of avant gallagher. The set is an eccentric constellation of technical gadgetry, but the overall effect feels a little superficial. We expect great things from Radiohole, having been transported by them in the past, but with Whatever, Heaven Allows, they seem to be lingering in limbo just a little bit.
Tagged
ps 122
radiohole
whatever heaven allows
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE arts-entertainment
A new film invites you to eavesdrop on one of the greatest conversations in NYC history
In 1972, legendary documentarian William Greaves filmed a party he threw for Harlem Renaissance luminaries. With help from his family, "Once Upon a Time in Harlem" brings that decades-old footage to theaters.
By
Sonia Rao
Published Oct 21, 2026 at 1:07 p.m. ET
The Knicks are NBA champions. Now they have to start dressing the part.
Before they attempt to fend off LeBron James and the 76ers on Tuesday, the Knicks will have a chance to show off their winning mentality through their tunnel fits.
By
Sonia Rao
Arts & Entertainment
The Knicks are NBA champions. Now they have to start dressing the part.
Before they attempt to fend off LeBron James and the 76ers on Tuesday, the Knicks will have a chance to show off their winning mentality through their tunnel fits.
By
Sonia Rao
Will Barnes and Noble in the East Village spell doom for smaller shops? It's complicated.
By
Sonia Rao
Can eligible NYC singles find love with 30 minutes and some really spicy food?
By
Elizabeth Shwe
and
James Ramsay
How the NYC Marathon has changed in the last 50 years
By
Hannah Frishberg
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .