Duo innovates with rhyme
God crosses paths with Nietzsche in complex Hip-Hop parable

No one mixes (or has ever mixed) comedy, philosophy and hip-hop music quite like Montreal's own Foqué Dans La Tête Productions. The production company made up of Jerome Saibil and Eli Batalion are responsible for the critically acclaimed play Job: The Hip-Hop Musical and will be back in town performing its Nietzschean counterpart Job II: The Demon of the Eternal Recurrence at Centaur Theater's Wildside Festival from Jan. 7 to Jan. 17.

The young eclectic duo of classically trained musicians made their first collaboration while in seventh grade at Cote-St-Luc's Bialik High School. Together they went on to major in philosophy at Rhode Island's prestigious Brown University, graduating in 2002.

At Brown they wrote the educational comedy, Everything You Wanted To Know About Yourself But Were Afraid To Ask Freud, which elucidated the psychoanalyst's theories. The play had 13 actors, 70 characters, and lasted an hour and 15 minutes. In a memorable scene, a man's seemingly normal dream about tree climbing as a boy is twisted into a sexual nightmare.

What makes the scene unusual and a trademark of Batalion-Saibil, is that the analyst sings his interpretation in a 50's Do-Wop style.

Their next work was even more experimental - a completely improvised theatrical soap opera entitled Blades Of Our Knives. The show's actors were allowed to develop their characters in advance but everything else was ad-libbed: including the show's music and lighting. Fast-paced and satirical, the show contained everything from Nadia, a psychotic German nurse, to Arc, a messenger from God.

After graduating from Brown in 2002, Saibil and Batalion completed work on their opus Job: The Hip-Hop Musical. The two-man frenetic comedy retells the Biblical story of Job in rhyme over Hip-Hop beats. Set in modern times at a rap-record company, the play makes reference to everything from Adobe Photoshop, sexism in the Bible, to the perils of not getting a tenure track position as a university professor.

The two have taken such a liking to the Hip-Hop form that they have started a rap-group, the Grafenberg All-Stars, dedicated to rapping about topics not traditionally emceed about including voice-mail, Sesame Street, porn midgets and epistemology.

Although Saibil and Batalion often deal with irreverent material, an intellectual depth underlies their work. Saibil told The Concordian, "We never want to perform or write something that doesn't mean anything. It has to mean something and it has to at least purport to make a significant contribution to the universe."

Saibil and Batalion call Job II: The Demon of the Eternal Recurrence (whose production manager Wendy Cohen is a Concordia Grad), an "existential journey through Hip-Hop." The play's structure is more sophisticated than its predecessor and the twosome have used their musical training to complicate their rhyming meter. Although it debuted (to rave reviews) at last year's Fringe Festival, the writers have tightened up the script and polished their performances.

Nietzsche wrote "Not by wrath does one kill, but by laughter." For wit and originality make sure to attend Job II: The Demon of the Eternal Recurrence but do so at your own risk.

Job II: The Demon of the Eternal Recurrence will be playing at Centaur Theater from Jan. 7 to Jan. 17. Tickets are $10. Call 288-3161 for details.

— Julian Nemeth