Performer shares Walker stage with the stuff of life

Geoff Sobelle during a performance.
Geoff Sobelle during a performance of "The Object Lesson."
Jeremy Abrahams | Courtesy Walker Art Center

If you have ever faced the gargantuan task of boxing up a huge pile of possessions, the Walker Art Center has a show for you.

Geoff Sobelle's one-man show "The Object Lesson," opening Wednesday night and running through the weekend, examines the human inclination to collect things. It does this by allowing the audience to rummage through other people's stuff.

The Walker's McGuire Theater is awash in boxes. Big ones. Little ones. Some neatly stacked and labeled, others apparently just dumped on the stage.

When asked how many boxes there are in total, Geoff Sobelle has a number at his fingertips.

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"I think it's 3,862," he said. "Although we lost one this morning. So 61."

Empty boxes piled in the theater seating area.
Empty boxes piled in the seating area of the Walker's McGuire Theater during installation of the set. Audiences don't use the theater's seats during the show. Instead, they wander round the box-strewn stage.
Euan Kerr | MPR News

He admitted there are actually only between 2,000 and 3,000 boxes. He knows because they all had to be fireproofed, and he paid by the box.

Sobelle was relaxed amid the chaos, even as the Walker crew set up the lighting and continued to unpack.

"Do you want to sit down?" he asked, pointing to an overstuffed chair. "Do you want to walk around? Let's walk around. I can show you some stuff."

And there's a lot of stuff to see. The entire stage was surrounded by a wall of boxes that must be 10 feet high. On the stage, some of the boxes lay open. Others were closed, but not sealed. Sobelle said that as the audience arrives people mill around, wondering what to do.

"It's funny, people [say] 'I guess we can kinda dig through some stuff.' Then you'll hear like, 'Oh my God! I had one of these! Remember this?' And then bit by bit they explore," he said.

Marked boxes
Most of the boxes are clearly marked, although sometimes the labels are ironic and misleading.
Euan Kerr | MPR News

The box labels can give a clue as to what's inside: old clothes, books, even "half-used soaps and lotions." Others are more enigmatic. Sobelle picked up one apparently at random.

"This one I really love," he said. "They are all like mini-installations. This one is called 'Lost in Love.'"

Inside, there's Australian soft rock band Air Supply's LP called "Lost in Love." It's got a 25-cent price tag.

"But then there's also some scuba gear, like this breath-control device, and that seems to resonate with 'Air Supply,' but then there's this picture of a girlfriend scuba diving. Sort of a sad old picture that's left alone in here," he said.

It's junk, but clearly something that was significant to someone at some point. That, said Sobelle, is the point.

"This is a meditation on collection, in a way," he said.

The audience is encouraged to explore boxes.
Audience members are encouraged to explore the boxes on their own. An old cooler is filled with packing peanuts and old beer and pop cans.
Euan Kerr | MPR News

One person's junk may be someone else's treasure. Sobelle said we make connections with objects around us, gluing memories of significant happenings to physical things, which then often end up in boxes.

"The Object Lesson" may begin as a kind of impromptu scavenger hunt, but there is a performance here too, even if Sobelle makes it hard to spot at first.

"All of the rituals of going to the theater, I really wanted to question and turn on its head," he said. "Like, 'Where's my seat? And where's the program? And when does the performance start? And who is the performer?' You know, all of those things."

Sobelle actually joins the crowd rummaging around, gradually becoming increasingly visible as he begins pulling a carpet, a table, and even a couple of lamps out of boxes to create what becomes a set for the first scene. He begins to use the lights to focus the action, sometimes getting audience members to hold the lamps to see what he's found.

The audience can move around, or take a box seat.
Audience members move around the stage with Sobelle during "The Object Lesson."
Euan Kerr | MPR News

"Oh my God!" he says, peering into a box after handing an inspection light to someone nearby. "No way!"

Over the next hour and a half he leads the crowd through his meditation on stuff. It's about the physical objects we gather, the mental baggage we carry. At times it's poignant, at others laugh-out-loud funny, and at the times when Sobelle uses his training as a magician, a little baffling. It's good, thought-provoking fun.

Sobelle said that when the lights go up, people often want to talk about their own recent experiences putting things in boxes: a child heading to college, or packing up the house of a parent.

"'I'm moving house,' or 'I just had a divorce,'" he said. "There are just so many reasons why our lives go in and out of boxes. They are transitions. They are always really important transitions you are or aren't prepared for, and you are usually overwhelmed."

This show is personal for Sobelle. A lot of the stuff the Walker audiences will paw through is his own.