The high point came midway, when Ryan McNamara, another performance artist, improvised and rousted the directors from the sidelines to help lend reality to the scene. While Ms. Nakadate conjured up the effect of wind by blowing in Mr. McNamara’s hair, Mr. Franco periodically spit (carefully) on Mr. McNamara’s cheeks in an unsuccessful effort to make it seem that he was crying. This bit of inspired ridiculousness didn’t last long, but it felt like what everyone had been waiting for.
-Roberta Smith
James Franco and Laurel Nakadate Channel Tennessee Williams, The L Magazine (click here for full article)
The third actor, who turned out to be performance artist Ryan McNamara, stopped about a third of his way into the monologue and asked for Franco and Nakadate's help. "When I do this I picture myself walking down a windy alley," McNamara explained, "so if you could just blow in my hair." After another false start he stopped again and said: "I'm not an actor, I can't cry on cue, so if Laurel you just keep blowing, and James can you spit a little under my eye so it looks like I'm crying." "Won't that distract from your performance," Franco asked." "No."
McNamara finally delivered the monologue, while Nakadate and Franco crawled in front of him blowing his hair and spitting under his eyes from one side then the other, earning a huge round of applause for their combined efforts.
-Benjamin Sutton
In the last of the three performances, a number of men were invited to deliver the play's final monologue. It began mundanely, but when artist Ryan McNamara asked Franco and Nakadate to come onstage and make literal some imagined stage directions, it was finally clear that the performers held the power position.
-Nicholas Weist
Performa Playbill, Art In America, (click here for full article)
McNamara asked Franco to spit tears on his face while Nakadate blows in his hair, because, he said, he can't cry on cue and he imagined the scene in a windswept alley. It's gross, weird and intimate as a hokey special effect.
-Paul David Young
James Franco Has A Seance, Showbiz411 (click here for full article)
A highlight was Ryan McNamara, who spontaneously called Franco and Nakadate on stage to help him read his “Menagerie” soliloquy. Roger Frieman
Is Performance Art the New Method Acting?, ArtInfo (click here for full article)
The third of these actors, who happened to be artist Ryan McNamara, called out for Nakadate and Franco to come out from backstage to assist him. He announced to the audience that he envisioned himself in an alleyway with the “wind blowing in my hair” and “stoic tears” rolling down his face, before asking Franco to spit in his face while Nakadate blew at his hair. The two obliged (I’m not so sure I would want Franco’s spit in my face, but each to his own). -Ann Binlen