We recently paid our first visit to the EMP Collective in The 401 and it was long overdue. EMP has been getting good word of mouth from people whose opinions we trust so we were anxious to partake in their latest creation, an immersive theater piece titled Night Sweats.
Night Sweats is a nearly seamless production that explores the dream state with all of its absurdity and surrealism intact. The narrative is clever, and for me, oddly nostalgic. It’s not that I’ve had any of these particular dreams, but some of the situations explored are experiences that can only be had in dreams. These situations teased out impressions of dreams locked within my own subconscious and resonated in a primal way. The subject of the piece is ambitious and could have easily lost the audience within its twist and turns but EMP delivered a production that captured the essence of impossible adventures and fantastical conversations we have with ourselves while sleeping.
My first impression of the EMP Collective was overwhelmingly positive. From my limited perspective the production value, for what I’m assuming was a limited budget, was impressive. They charged fifteen bucks for admission, which is three times as high as most Baltimore DIY art events, and good for them. Artists in this city need to start putting a reasonable price on their art so that they can turn a profit and continue to create and grow. We will always be a city that loves to pile into warehouse spaces to see something irreverent and experimental but, if we want our cultural scene to survive we need to start paying our artists a living wage. :::steps down off soapbox::: Long time What Weekly readers will recognize that this is one of those evenings we decided to try publishing under the influence of cheap red wine again.
So, I’ve got a lot left to write tonight and I already have a buzz so let’s wrap this up. Night Sweats is well worth the trip. If you dig creative people doing creative things and you haven’t been to this space yet, this is the perfect opportunity. The last three shows are this weekend (Thurs, Fri, Sat, 8pm) and you can buy your tickets right here.
