In Way Over His Head

In ‘Deepest Man,’ an Immersion Into a Watery Beyond

The Twilight Zone meets media critique meets psychological portraiture in James Scruggs’s Deepest Man, a thought-provoking experiment at the 3LD Art & Technology Center. Given that the show comes from 3-Legged Dog — a company known for integrating performance, video and effects — it is unsurprising that the piece, loaded with abstraction and supernatural traces, is a visual marvel. A desolate ambience is established by David Ogle’s set, encompassing the entire room. Crumbling pasteboard suggesting water damage constitutes the walls at left and right of the audience, while spotty, tarpaulin-like cloth is draped on their seats. The stage has three planes: one near, offering action in the tangible present; one comprising scrims on which hologram-like images are projected; and one extending back about 30 feet, in which dreamlike tableaus are staged.