Review: Grasping for Dad’s story in ‘The Institute of Memory (TIMe)’

Los Angeles Times Theater Critic Time veils the past in mystery for everyone, but theater artist Lars Jan’s case is exceptional. In “The Institute of Memory,” which concluded its world premiere run at REDCAT on Sunday, Jan meditated on the available facts, traced the rippling effects of his uncertainty and considered some of the broader issues concerning identity, data and privacy — subjects that have ignited a national debate post-Edward Snowden, who figured playfully in the piece. Created by Early Morning Opera, Jan’s genre-bending performance lab that supplied the collaborative team, and produced by the CalArts Center for New Performance, this still-germinating collage was gamely performed by Ryan Masson and Annie Saunders on a spare, abstract set that evoked both an apartment study and a sterile institution. Saunders, a wide-ranging theater artist who was a creator and cast member of the immersive dance-theater piece “The Day Shall Declare It,” elicited chuckles from the audience after introducing herself as Lars Henrick Jan. She became a conduit for a son’s hazy and incomplete memories of a distant parent. One adventurous, though wobbly, segment involved the casual impersonation of photographer Ansel Adams and National Security Agency whistle-blower Snowden — two pioneers of innovative technologies portrayed by a man and woman who seemed to be working out relationship issues not unrelated to Jan’s confounding past.