Theatre in Review: The 7th Voyage of Egon Tichy [redux] (Fourth Street Theatre)The only thing better than one Joshua William Gelb is two of him. Or three. Or four. Or...well, I finally lost count during this giddy adaptation of a Stanislaw Lem story, which blends live performance and video to hilarious effect. Gelb, the balding, bespectacled, and thoroughly jumpy co-creator of this mad exercise, is the title character, traveling solo through the far reaches of space. Initially happy to enjoy some cosmic peace and quiet, his single status becomes awkward when his ship's rudder is damaged, and the necessary exterior repairs require two sets of hands. The way the voice of the ship's computer reiterates this need, in the imperturbable, infuriatingly calm manner of an automated call center, is an early laugh-provoking touch. In any case The 7th Voyage of Egon Tichy is about to go haywire. At a loss on how to proceed, Egon is soon bemused to be confronted by...himself. Well, his (very near) future self, who has traveled back through the "time vortex" to help him fix the rudder. This elegant solution from Tuesday Egon is hard for his Monday counterpart to process. Dipping into his "pocket copy" of the General Theory of Relativity, he realizes that the plan comes with the threat of peril: "If I fall into a vortex, I'll be sucked into an Einsteinian Quagmire. I'll be crushed to the size of an atom or stretched like a piece of cosmic taffy. Or I could be caught for eternity in a time loop." In other words, what could possibly go wrong? The scenes of Egon and his double are realized through cunning video trickery. Gelb performs in an 8'-by-4' white box at center stage. Located left and right are large projection screens; the live action, captured on camera, is inserted into existing footage of the spaceship, allowing Gelb to interact with his video double. It's a tricky business, to be sure, and it becomes positively mind-bending when each day of the week produces another Egon, some of whom are more hostile than others. As the action becomes more chaotic, the live Gelb flawlessly executes scenes of door-slamming farce with an ever-growing company of doppelgangers. Existential dilemmas don't come any crazier: When Thursday Egon brains his Friday version with a frying pan, he admits, "I'm going to regret that tomorrow." Wait for the moment the camera pulls back to reveal a knockout of a long shot, revealing what happens when the play's conceit is pushed to the absolute limit. It's an Olympic acting feat, a product of Theatre in Quarantine, Gelb's lockdown project, during which he presented online plays working out of a closet in his East Village apartment. Unlike Egon's voyage, the production is the work of many individuals, including playwright/co-creator Josh Luxenberg and director/co-creator Jonathan Levin; all three collaborate to deliver these wild doings in a mock-serious tone suggestive of Captain Kirk confiding in his star log. Peiyi Wong's scenic design efficiently gives us plenty to look at; it's amusing to see the audience's attention switching from one screen to another, like attendees at a tennis match. Jesse Garrison's seamless video design will leave you convinced Gelb has been effectively cloned; it's proof you don't need a Broadway budget to work visual miracles. Marika Kent's tightly focused lighting has a key role to play as well, as does Florian Staab's original music and sound design, a mashup of menacing spaceship rattles, movie-style underscoring, and riotously inappropriate Mantovani/101 Strings-style easy-listening melodies. I am late to the Theatre in Quarantine party but it's delightful to know that Gelb's online concept works so well in front of a live audience. The 7th Voyage of Egon Tichy is a co-production with Sinking Ship Productions, presented by New York Theatre Workshop and Lucille Lortel Theatre. It provides Under the Radar with a revivifying burst of originality. --David Barbour 
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