NEW YORK — "The beauty and the folly of the thing is the 'What if...,' and all the strange variables that can come to the surface when you throw people into a room together and allow anything to happen." So said artist Laurel Nakadate yesterday in an interview with ARTINFO, speaking of "Three Performances in Search of Tennessee," the project she co-conceived with actor/artist/director/fashion photographer/all-around-kind-of-guy — how do we label him? — James Franco for the current Performa festival of performance art.

If Nakadate is explaining the duo's goal accurately, then the performance was a success, because it certainly did feel like a collection of "strange variables." Last Sunday's performance at the Lower East Side’s Abrons Art Center began with an Act 1 titled "Séance," which involved the participation of an actual spiritual medium, Betsy Cohen. "Place your feet flat on the floor, palms face up," she instructed the audience as she supposedly went about attempting to channel deceased playwright Tennessee Williams, flanked by Nakadate (in fuchsia tights and a black cocktail dress) and Franco (in a Gucci suit — he's appeared in their ad campaigns, after all).

Soon, the spiritual medium did indeed seem to be communing with the ghost of Williams, who died in 1983. Cohen informed the audience that Williams’s energy "feels very large," saying that the playwright saw the same qualities in Franco that he saw in Marlon Brando. "The ideas that you have that are outside the box are very magical,” Williams communicated to Franco, according to the spiritual medium. “He loves and appreciates he is the center point of your attraction."

"I think all performances are trying to have conversation with and trying to communicate with the original author of the work or add to a conversation," Nakadate explained to ARTINFO. "We thought a séance in which we were trying to speak with Tennessee would be the perfect opening of the show that we hoped would show our true admiration and interest in Tennessee."

The second act of the collaboration, titled "Women," turned out to be a little more lighthearted. A large screen appeared onstage, projecting a pre-filmed Franco reading the role of the Gentleman Caller in Williams's seminal 1944 play, "The Glass Menagerie." A series of actresses came out one-by-one to audition for the part of Laura, reading lines back to the pre-filmed Franco that appeared on the screen (much like karaoke).

Nakadate and the actual Franco sat on stools to the side, acting as directors, sometimes whispering to one another as they observed the actresses. "Turn out to the audience a little more," ordered Nakadate. Each actress would get a few minutes with the onscreen Franco (who at one point awkwardly thrust his hips side to side in a dance scene), before Nakadate or Franco would yell, "Next!," the signal for the next actress to come on stage and take the microphone.

At one point, an actress screamed out, "Oh my God! I have to call my mom!," as soon as she saw Franco, which made me wonder whether or not they knew what they had been in for. Some actresses flubbed their lines while others did manage to do the text some justice under the confounding circumstances. One, dressed in a Lady Gaga-like get up, was truly bizarre. She just happened to end up with the mic while Franco’s Gentlemen Caller said, "I can sure guess a person’s psychology," to which the real Franco produced the (somewhat lame) bon mot, "I can guess her psychology."

In the final act, titled "Men," a handful of actors came out to audition for the part of Tom, all performing the same monologue. The third of these actors, who happened to be artist Ryan McNamara, called out for Nakadate and Franco to come out from backstage to assist him. He announced to the audience that he envisioned himself in an alleyway with the “wind blowing in my hair” and “stoic tears” rolling down his face, before asking Franco to spit in his face while Nakadate blew at his hair. The two obliged (I’m not so sure I would want Franco’s spit in my face, but each to his own).

Perhaps the highlight of that act however was the final person to appear: performance artist Kalup Linzy, clad in a bronze wig and his signature tight green bathrobe-turned-minidress. Linzy read a sassy, souled-up version of the "Tom" monologue. (I guess Franco and Linzy worked out their New  York Times-reported "issues")

After seeing "Three Performances in Search of Tennessee," I was full of questions, which the publicist for the art Web site Paddle8 (which sponsored the production) answered afterwards: Was that a real séance? (Answer: Yes!) Was the second act rehearsed, or improv? (Answer: Improv — turns out the actresses answered a Craigslist ad for an open casting call.) Did Nakadate and Franco know they would be blowing and spitting in McNamara’s face? (Answer: No).

While I’m not sure the performance piece made much sense (but then again, is performance art supposed to make sense?), it certainly did entertain and make me think — about Tennessee Williams, the auditioning process, and the meaning of fame. If that was Nakadate and Franco’s point, then they were spot on.

Click on the photo gallery to see scenes from the performance. Visit Paddle8.com to see selected parts of "Three Performances in Search of Tennessee."