In just a few years, the French Alliance’s Crossing the Line Festival (fiaf.org/ctl) has become a fall staple. Focusing mostly on French and American artists, this interdisciplinary fest draws on dance, multimedia installations, lectures, performance art and theater — often in the same show.
One of the most buzzed-about entries is Brian Rogers’ “Hot Box,” running through Saturday at the Chocolate Factory (5-49 49th Ave.; Long Island City, Queens; 212-352-3101). Rogers had announced that he would perform drunk, inspired by Marlon Brando and Klaus Kinski’s gonzo turns in, respectively, “Apocalypse Now” and “Fitzcarraldo.”
It was hard to tell, at least at Friday’s show, if Rogers was smashed — he merely looked a little sweaty and dazed — in the plotless “endurance challenge.” It certainly was that for the audience, which is seated in a claustrophobic basement space divided in small sections by scrims and screens. There’s haze and spectral lights, and you’re pounded into submission by gut-rattlingly loud, low-frequency soundscapes.
Very little happens. Rogers and an acolyte, Madeline Best, go from one video camera to another, only to stare at them — you see close-ups of their faces on large screens. Occasionally, she shouts instructions to him: “Turn your body to the right!” “Brian, come here!” Toward the end, the projections accelerate and become strobe-like.
At times the overall effect is like being inside a horror movie. Other times, it feels oddly meditative.
Another high concept is David Levine’s “Habit” (Friday to Sept. 30), in which three actors perform a 90-minute play in an apartment built from scratch inside the Essex Street Market. When the play is over, the cast immediately repeats it, on a loop, for eight hours straight. Mercifully the audience can come and go at will.
In “Love’s End” (Oct. 10 to Oct. 13, Abrons Arts Center), French choreographer Pascal Rambert mixes theater and movement to represent the final stage of a relationship. It will be performed by the magnetic actors Kate Moran — a recurring figure in “Einstein on the Beach,” now playing at BAM — and Jim Fletcher, a member of Richard Maxwell’s New York City Players company.
Falling more squarely in the dance camp is “Pas de Deux” (Oct. 10 to 12, Baryshnikov Arts Center), choreographed by former Pina Bausch dramaturg Raimund Hoghe. Here, Hogue — who has a deformed spine — reconfigures the classical duet for himself and Takashi Ueno. A guest turn on TV’s “Bunheads” is unlikely.