theatre theater

Last week was another week of theater for me. As I already said I saw Meredith Monk (+) and William Forsythe (-). Then yesterday I saw Spalding Gray: Stories Left to Tell (+) and An Evening with Philippe Decoufle (+)*, who's a French choreographer and director. The company I work for was given free tickets to Spalding Gray, or else I probably wouldn't have gone. And that would have been okay. The show consisted of four actors, two men and two women, retelling a compilation of Gray's stories. When one actor would begin to speak, I would think, "Hmm, you're my least favorite" only to have that title given to the very next actor who spoke. So most of the performance I tried to figure out who I liked least. I didn't hate any of them but I didn't particularly like them either. This was quite the breasty show too, where the women were concerned. For some reason their breasts were pushed up and in like nobody's business. It was pretty distracting. What carried this show was Spalding Gray's superb writing. At the end of the show one of the women was retelling a story about a time Gray danced around with his family to a Chumbawamba song. At the end, that song began playing while a video of Spalding Gray telling the same story (sans sound) was played on the back wall. It brought a tear to my eye. A few tears. It was such a great, sweet story and the video brought home that he was really gone. I'm not usually one to remember specifics concerning other's lives but I remember what I was doing when I heard Spalding Gray's body was found.

Later Sunday evening I saw a bunch of videos choreographed/directed by Philippe Decoufle. I first saw his work when I was in college and the ad in Time Out had a still of the video I had seen. I recognized it and bought a ticket and I'm glad I did. He's a pretty clever guy. Some of his work was a little dull but mostly only when he fell dance conventions, for the most part he's inventive and original and fun and strange. Here's the video I first saw in college. I think it's a more accessible example of his work. Yes, yes, I know you don't want to watch a video on someone's blog, but it's fun. I promise.


And here's a probably less accessible one, but I still love it.


I like his work enough to actually consider seeing his solo show playing at The Joyce. The Joyce! Crunchy bone central. Where old women go to see non-offensive traditional but billed as avant-garde dance. I think they'll be in for a surprise with this show. That's probably why it's not selling that well.

*Not all (+)s are equal.