Indy Theatre Habit

Last night (Thursday night), I drove to the Butler University campus to see a new show by the professional, collaborative ShadowApe Theatre Company.  “Transformations” is an original adaptation based on the poetry of Anne Sexton.  These particular poems are based on twelve stories from the brothers Grimm.

This show is a treat.  And I’m not just saying that because I am a story lover.

In fact, because I am a fan of oral tradition storytelling, I have heard various tellers from around the world tell most of the stories that are in this piece.  I love hearing folk and fairy tales over and over again because they resonate deeply in my psyche even when they are told superficially by novice tellers.

But when they are told by master performance artists who have explored them deeply and made fresh, creative choices about how to share them without diluting them, the experience is…something very special.

After the show I went out to my car and just cried for a while.  Good, cathartic tears.

The piece illuminates Anne Sexton’s poems as well.  They are filled with funny, unexpected metaphors and similes.  ShadowApe’s interpretations of them makes the poems very accessible.  You don’t think, “Oh, what a skillful simile.”  You think, “Hah!  That’s great!” or “Hah! That’s so true!”  I had been planning to do my duty and borrow Transformations, by Anne Sexton, from the public library (poetry is good for me, right?) but now that I have seen this show, I want my own copy to read and underline for pleasure.

This is definitely a show for adults.  Sometimes people think that fairy tales = Disney = kids’ stuff, but the stories that Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm collected in the early 1800s were not safe and sweet.  Sexton related them to her own life, which apparently was not safe or sweet, either.  The program says that even though she won the Pulitzer Prize in 1966, in 1974 she killed herself.  I appreciate that ShadowApe has not ”cleaned up” either the poems or the original tales.

People also sometimes think “kids stuff” when they hear that a show incorporates puppets, but the use of a variety of kinds of puppets in this show is smoothly integrated and very clever.  The seven dwarves in “Snow White” alone…oh! I am laughing out loud again, remembering them. (Puppets designed by Patrick Weigand.)

I laughed a lot during this show – sometimes because of the humor, sometimes in delight at the artistry – but I also cried in sympathy with the characters who were in pain (the crazy, homeless man telling about “Iron Hans” as he shakes his paper begging cup, for example) and held my breath when the stories turned erotic.

During the sensuous, and sensual, telling of “Rapunzel,” for example, a woman starts by saying, “A woman who loves a woman is forever young” and something about a mentor getting as much from her mentee as the other way around.   Two women cuddle on the sofa in the mentor’s study.  The cuddling turns into kissing and rolling around on the floor.  Somehow there are now three women, and suddenly, they have taken the shape of rampion and a father is stealing some for his sick wife.  Suddenly, he is agreeing to give up his daughter in exchange for the plants when the witch catches him in her garden.

I cried for the lonely, middle-aged witch when Rapunzel left her for the prince.

The actors work seamlessly as an ensemble, and very quickly into the piece I wanted to just let go and be transformed by their richly layered storytelling, so I didn’t even try to take notes about who did what.  Three of the actors – Jen Johansen, Robert K. Johansen, and Constance Macy – are professional actors and regular members of ShadowApe.  The other two – Daniel C. Brown and Jessica Conger – are Butler students.  The three regulars are perhaps a bit more fearless about looking into the audience’s eyes as they speak, but all five are highly talented, and as strong and beautiful as dancers.

Butler University’s Lilly Hall studio 328 is a black box theatre.  For this particular production, the space has been made into an alley-style stage.  The audience sits on risers on either side of the alley.  Great swaths of white cloth hang at either end and serve as projection screens, backdrops, and entrance ways.  Actors also enter from the four corners of the alley and talk, sometimes, under generous squares of light.  There is no furniture on the stage.  The actors use pieces of cloth, wooden cubes, puppets, hula hoops, apples…and most of all, their own beige-clad bodies, to create worlds and convey meaning. (Set design by Robert K. Johansen.  Lighting design by Ryan Koharchik.  Mary Ferguson is the stage manager.  Kate Goetzinger is the assistant stage manager.)

There are many special effects in this show, but they are satisfyingly transparent and delightful rather than gimmicky.  They invite the audience to use our imaginations in a real, engaged way.

For example, Snow White bonks her head on an imaginary ceiling again and again, just as she opens the door to the wicked stepmother again and again.  The “bonk” sound and her splat each time are hilarious.  (Sound design by Andrew Hopson.)

Rapunzel throws out a long, shimmery piece of golden cloth for her hair.  The prince holds onto it and is pulled across the floor, but when you glance up at the white cloths on the walls, somehow the prince is being projected onto them, and it looks as if he is actually climbing up a wall.  Very cool.

A little later, someone brings out the video camera on a tripod, and we get to see even more how the special effect is made, as a Raymond Chandler-like character shares a funny, noir telling of “The Twelve Dancing Princesses” right into the camera, while holding a flashlight under his chin.  The princesses wear trench coats just like his.  (Costumes by Wendy Meaden.)

The whole piece is framed with excerpts from a film of Sexton reading aloud from her work.  This adds yet another intriguing layer of language and images while also grounding this new work in the work of the person who inspired it.

I want to tell you about every single delicious aspect of this show, but I will restrain myself.   Believe me, I have only touched the surface in this review.

Oh, except that I have to add, I just have to,  “The Red Riding Hood shower curtain!”  I bet you will love it, too.

I will also tell you that I saw the final dress rehearsal/preview performance, not an official public performance.  Instead of paying for admission on Thursday night, people brought pasta or rice donations for Second Helpings.  I am trying to be a professional reviewer, and professional reviewers do not write about preview performances.

However, Thursday night was the only night I could see this show, and no way (no way!) was I going to miss a ShadowApe show – not after seeing and loving their “Monkey House” last year (pre-blog.)  So I guess my “professional reviewer” card will just have to wait a while longer. 

I asked ShadowApe’s main contact person, Constance Macy, if she was okay with me writing about their preview performance, and she said she was.

I agree with the Nuvo editors who said that “Productions by ShadowApe Theatre Company are like seasonal fruits:  They come along briefly and just once a year, but when they do…the experience lingers on.” 

I predict this show will sell out soon, a) because it is ShadowApe but also because b) it only runs for two weekends (through July 27) and c) because there are not that many seats in this theatre.  You may purchase tickets online via the ShadowApe website.

Be sure to get there early.  The doors to the studio are part of the backstage area and there is no intermission to this 90?-minute show, so you will not be allowed in if you are late.   Here are some tips for getting there on time:

If you have never been to Lilly Hall, first find the huge Clowes Hall.  Lilly Hall is right next to it.  There is parking on the other side of Lilly from Clowes.  The signs say “Faculty and Staff Parking Only,” but don’t worry:  in teeny-tiny print underneath, the signs say, “8 am – 3 pm Monday-Friday only.”

However, just in case those spots are all full, give yourself enough time to park on the other side of Clowes, or across the huge yard, and walk to Lilly Hall.

Inside Lilly Hall, watch for “ShadowApe” signs, but ignore the big, permanent sign that says “Theatre” on the first floor.  You want to find the elevator that is just inside the Lilly Hall door that is closest to Clowes.  It will take a long, long time to get to the third floor, so leave yourself enough time for that, too.

Since there is no intermission, there are no refreshments, but you might want to bring $12 to buy a ShadowApe t-shirt or $3 to buy a ShadowApe bumper sticker.

I hope you can get tickets!  As I say, this show is a special treat.

Hope Baugh – www.IndyTheatreHabit.com