Company XIV
303 Bond St
May 23, 2009
Reviewed by VanLoan
vanloan@nyconstage.org
Hot on the heels (no pun intended) of this winter’s delightfully debauched The Judgment of Paris, uber-talented Austin McCormick returns with Le Serpent Rouge. Working out of his company’s home space, a converted warehouse in Brooklyn’s Carroll Gardens (the non-gentrified section), McCormick’s latest dance-theater piece is subtitled A Titillating Tragedy. He and his gifted ensemble take on the story of Adam and Eve and nothing less than the fall of mankind.
After priming us with the impressive Davon Rainey’s erotic drag queen dance, the Ring Mistress (McCormick’s muse Gioia Marchese) enters introducing us to the lonely Adam (John Beasant III) in the Garden of Eden. Soon the whip-cracking Ring Mistress brings in Lillith (Yeva Glover) the original companion to Adam. Unable and unwilling to succumb to Adam’s charms, Lillith reinvents herself as the Serpentine Siren aka Le Serpent Rouge. Eve (Laura Careless) comes into the Garden and the rest is history. And just like Adam, we’re bewitched, bothered and bewildered over the proceedings.
As we wait for Eve to take the proverbial bite of the apple, McCormick gives us a decadent, carnival sideshow of the seven deadly sins that will result with Eve’s transgression (with vaudevillian footlights and period cue cards to boot). My personal favorite is the sin of jealousy which McCormick depicts as an Italian melodrama from the later 50’s. Gina Scherr’s lightning design is a cornucopia of reds, oranges and violets. The sumptuous production design is further enhanced by Olivera Gajic’s costumes which mix 1930’s decadence with 1990’s sadomasochism while the depth of the warehouse allows set designer Zane Pihlstrom to create a ‘backstage’ area worthy of another play. It also allows McCormick to stage scenes in “longshot” to further encourage the ‘tableau vivant’ effect. A large mirror is often used to reflect the action back to the audience.
McCormick’s true passion is dance so the choreography dazzles whether it’s the full splits of the drag queen to something as perversely simple as Adam walking over Eve’s back to get to Lillith. It lacks the manic energy of The Judgment of Paris but allows for the fall of humanity through its seductive movement. The “book” of Serpent credits such diverse influences as the Bible, Thomas Mann and Jean Cocteau but McCormick fuses the sources seamlessly into a magnetic whole. And any show that somehow manages to combine the mutually divine divas, Cecilia Bartoli, Peggy Lee and Nina Simone into the same soundscape is A number one in my book (actually the ingenious sound design also by McCormick is the highlight of the show).
Basically, the theme of the show is the oft-told conflict of woman as Madonna or Whore. As the Ring Mistress dryly notes,” We are women and must endure the fingers of men permanently pointing in our direction. To fall is to know the intricacies of life’s deepest joys and sorrows”. No one can show those colorful intricacies quite as beautifully as Austin McCormick.
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