The Minetta Lane Theatre (West Village) is the site of a brilliant revival of Martha Clarke’s unusual 1984 dance/performance work, a fascinating 70 minutes of music, dance and aerial work loosely inspired by Hieronymus Bosch’s allegorical and fantastic triptych "The Garden of Earthly Delights” (circa 1500).
The musical score, written by Richard Peaslee and played by on-stage musicians dressed as monks on animal horns, jews harp, percussion, and cello, evokes primitive tribal rites. For me, the music played a big role in the overall success.
Dancers in flesh-colored body suits crawl or amble about on all fours, eventually standing upright, walking, running, and enacting a parable of a man and woman, a snake, and an apple. The dancers take to the air on wires as they vault about the stage. In the middle segment, the dancers don peasant-like outfits and evoke paintings by Brueghel the Elder (e.g., The Harvesters, The Kermiss, The Peasant Wedding), and enact brutish games and sports, wrestling matches or assaults, a rape, tossing potatoes, eating potatoes, excreting potatoes.
Finally, the dancers return to their skin-toned body suits and take to the air once more. Flying by Foy receives prominent credit in the program, with credits to Geddy Webb as Flying Director and David Hale as Flying Consultant, and I would like to find out where I can go to try out these flight tricks.
I will have to see the show again to answer the simple question “what does it mean?", but this is an unforgettable 70 minutes of performance art.
Discount tickets have been offered to TDF members.
