Stuffed: Geoff Sobelle’s “The Object Lesson”
Geoff Sobelle's one-man show at Studio Theatre is an immersive adventure in unpacking
“Have you noticed that their stuff is shit, and your shit is stuff?”
The late George Carlin’s famous routine riffing on one man’s trash being another’s treasure helped shape Geoff Sobelle’s one-man show, The Object Lesson. It was also subtly inspired by another comedian, George Carl, whom Sobelle refers to as “the master of the physical gag.”
Yet his stage show, whimsically focused on our attachment to “stuff,” is not a comedy. “There are some really funny things that happen in it, and a lot of physical comedy,” Sobelle says, “but it is not a laugh a minute or a light comedy.”
Sobelle calls it “a meditation on the everyday objects that we have in our lives that we often overlook or don’t think much about” — from clothing we’ll never wear again but refuse to throw out, to household items that could be useful but go unused. The 90-minute Object Lesson begins as an immersive experience. “You’re not walking into a theater, you’re walking into a kind of storage facility [with] boxes stacked to the ceiling.” Theatergoers are encouraged to rummage through open boxes and pull out objects that tickle their fancy. Eventually Sobelle emerges to wander among the audience and gradually assembles a set, unpacking pieces box by box. He then sits in the middle of the room and leads a rather informal discussion.
As a child Sobelle was enamored with “silent film clowns,” from Charlie Chaplin to Buster Keaton. His career to date has been focused on creating works with Philadelphia’s legendary Pig Iron Theatre Company. Yet he’s already developing another solo show as a follow-up to Object Lesson, focusing on the distinction between the concepts of house and home.
“It’s about all of the people who may have lived in the house before you did, and the people that are going to come afterward,” he says. “Whose ‘home’ is it?”
The Object Lesson runs now to June 5. Studio Theatre, 14th & P Streets NW. Tickets are $45 to $55. Call 202-332-3300 or visit studiotheatre.org.
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