A fluid figure slinks on Wesleyan University’s Center for the Arts stage, draped in a rainbow of reflective fringe, fracturing beams into flares and stunning your eyes into focus. No music plays. A curtain speech starts: “What a great way to suck all the energy out of a performance…”

Artist and MacArthur Fellow Taylor Mac (who uses the pronoun judy) draws irony from introductions, fashioning each into a witty project overview. This show is distilled from Mac’s 24-hour history of popular music—tonight, a mere two hours are devoted to American protest songs. A rendition of Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” is a burgeoning wave of frustration that eventually breaks. Mac’s voice rises from a chime to a crash.

As part of the set, judy beguiles old white men sporting the “Connecticut uniform” (khakis, blazers) onstage and gauges their character from a spectator’s seat. The initial discomfort melts first into laughter, then makes a cogent impression—many people feel this judgement every day. Empathy exercises are most potent during an interactive slow dance, where audience members partner with same-gender strangers over a wistful cover of Ted Nugent’s “Snakeskin Cowboys.” Under a mirror ball, the mocking song is reclaimed through close moments of physical connection.

Near Wesleyan’s campus, neon red letters blaze the colloquial Italian for “wild boar.” Osa restaurant is theatrically crosslit inside and out. A communal table of guests welcomes you into a space of blond pine—a dinner party in the hippest garden shed. At its heart beats a wood-burning stove, crackling ingredients until they are staged on a dish. Popcorn snacks sparkle with citric acid; salad greens compete with a herbed, paperthin breadcrumb for the most crunch; and a recent eggplant harvest spans the menu.

Springy spaghetti entwines tomato, garlic confit, chili flake, caper, Arethusa Farm Tapping Reeve cheese, and aubergine in a hearty alla Norma that recalls the kaleidoscopic strands of judy’s costume. Housemade pickles are as sharp as cultural critique and textures clash, making sure you’re paying attention.

10/10/2019