There’s a whole lot of textual content in “Many Glad Returns,” however the dance, the physique language—introduced right here as deliberate and slyly frank—is simply as vital because the phrases. The principle character, who by no means speaks however at one level sings a Billy Joel track in flat a cappella, is Monica Invoice Barnes. However is she actually?
On this partially improvised work at Playwrights Horizons by artistic team of Barnes and Robbie Saenz de Viteri, Barnes, the dancer and choreographer, is not simply enjoying herself. Her character is a hybrid of her creators.
Barnes performs the lady’s physique – with its silent-film attraction because it strikes via house in lithe and dewy methods – and Saenz de Viteri, talking all through, is her thoughts. By way of motion and textual content, the character’s insecurities and joys spill out for all to really feel and see. “She is a girl who carries herself with full readability, a readability she might not even all the time really feel precisely,” says Saenz de Viteri. That appears proper.
Bach, Blondie and Judy Garland are a part of the energetic soundtrack that helps usher within the New 12 months. Flowers are handed out, an viewers member makes a pre-written toast. We encourage her. “Mnogo Glad Returns” meanders down many paths till it reaches, joyfully, its charming closing dance to Speaking Heads’ “(Nothing however) Flowers.” It appears unfastened – with the cheerful air of a dwell podcast – however its freedom clearly comes from its unwavering construction and element.
At its core, Mnogo Glad Returns is an experiment within the artwork of camaraderie and connection, of strangers discovering neighborhood in a damaged world. “I additionally must say that I will play another person, there’s going to be a second the place I am truly going to play one in every of you after which there’s going to be a second the place one in every of you has to play one in every of us,” Saenz de Viteri says. “So we’re all on this collectively.”
This manufacturing — admission is free — takes place in an area dressed as a faculty gymnasium dance. Within the seemingly informal opening, Barnes arranges pitchers and vases of flowers; Saenz di Viteri sits behind a small desk and a pc, setting the scene: “There’s undoubtedly some worry within the air this 12 months,” he says. “Perhaps a little bit pleasure? I do not know.’
However this efficiency, he says, can be “sort of like a celebration.” Because the mastermind behind this manufacturing, Saenz di Viteri can also be its amiable host, easygoing and free-spirited from the beginning. At first, he asks to borrow a hat from an viewers member, which on Thursday turned out to be a extra summer-appropriate fedora made from paper. Its backstory—the hat was bought on a visit to Italy—seems later within the present, when Saenz di Viteri spins a story about it impressed by his direct dialog with its wearer. One other pleased return is that this: He takes the banal and makes it riveting.
And Barnes, using the short pulses of her physique, matches his verbal dexterity as she involves life, looking for her footing as she stumbles and triumphs alongside her typically hilarious, typically nonsensical path. She is in management, however beneath the floor you’re feeling self-doubt; for her, dance is armor the place she appears most safe.
It’s greater than plausible as Barnes connects seemingly simple movements — foot-slapping at repetition, spinning with freedom and energy, toes snapping for pleasure — beating from one route to a different like a gale. Her expression, flickering between heat and fearless vacancy, is one other sort of armor, a masks. “Her face did not all the time inform everybody how she felt about every part,” says Saenz di Viteri, “the best way mine all the time is.”
However she finds solace when she dances with three pals from her previous – Mykel Marai Nairne, Indah Mariana and Flannery Gregg – who seem and disappear via doorways behind the stage. In these duets, dancers steadiness rolled-up yoga mats on their heads, faucet backwards and forwards to “Let Your Love Circulation” by the Bellamy Brothers, and lip-sync to “Islands within the Stream.” In every, they’re twins sure by motion.
In direction of the tip, Saenz di Viteri says, “Perhaps it is a good suggestion to maneuver. I believe there’s an opportunity that speaking does not truly make us really feel higher.”
As a full pressure of 4, they blasted the dance flooring to Blondie’s “Dreaming.” Motion, as we realized earlier within the piece, will not be everlasting, however the next picture is enduring. And identical to the worth of admission to this present, dreaming, courtesy of Blondie, is free.
Many pleased returns
By way of Jan 18 at Playwrights Horizons; playwrightshorizons.org.
