‘Falling Sideways’: East Village show explores the etherial aspects of life and the universe

No one can accuse Pamela Enz of not tackling the big questions. 

Life, death, afterlife, sex, physics, the zeitgeist, mysticism, the nature of the universe and the fate of humanity are all touched on in Enz’s latest play, “Falling Sideways Off The Edge Of The Earth,” now playing at the Theater for the New City in the East Village.

While the non-linear production sprung from Enz’s pen, the team that collaborated with her made strong contributions to the current staging. Sculptor Eve Laroche-Joubert created the minimalist set; Joan Pope contributed rapid-fire black-and-white video backgrounds that change from scene to scene; Elliott Randall wrote the music; and C.C. Kellogg and Avery Wigglesworth co-directed an energetic cast.

Enz has been working on this one for awhile now — “decades!” she says, laughing. 

“That includes latent periods when life was teaching me one thing on the surface while beneath my passions patiently waited to surface,” Enz explains. “I never set out to do something … but a certain gestation takes place before a story is born from out of a pile of notes, monologues, various lines sprung from my own consciousness or being alert and sensitive to the marvelous things one can hear people say out loud passing one on the street “. 

Co-director Kellogg remarks that “Pam has a very unique style and voice” and notes that the play “is also structurally unusual, kaleidoscopic rather than traditionally narrative.” She relates that while working with a non-linear play is a challenge, it’s also a delight.

“The main challenge is how to stage such an unusual world,” Kellogg says. “A world that shifts between timescales, in the liminal space between life and death. Nothing felt set in stone, which gave us so much room to explore in rehearsals. I hope people enjoy that openness and feel free to bring their own interpretation to the text, which is surrealist but has a real beating heart in its mother/daughter…