Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – In the hard-to-categorize COLOR THEORIES, Julio Torres brings a dreamy disposition to his incisive musings

• By drediman
• September 12, 2025
• No Comments

Also this week, Julio Torres’s Color Theories opened Off-Broadway at Performance Space New York in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan. Perhaps best known for his award-winning HBO series Fantasmas and the indie film Problemista (which he created, directed, and starred in), his current hard-to-classify show finds the boyishly ethereal Torres honing his craft as a downtown performance artist, continuing down the line established by artful monologuists like Spalding Gray and obsessive, idiosyncratic downtown artists (and personalities) like Wallace Shawn. Aesthetically, Color Theories channels both the instructional format and childlike wonder of Sesame Street and the surrealism of the paintings of Salvador Dalí in Torres’s quest to, essentially, assign meaning to colors.

There’s absolutely no doubt that Torres is thoroughly committed to his vision and open to jumping through the proverbial hoops in the name of experimentation, even at the consequence of some drawn-out pacing (at the time of my viewing, the show seemed in the final stretch of fully coming together). Indeed, for those of you unfamiliar with him, Torres may initially come across as a hesitant performer, but it’s all part of the onstage persona he’s trying to create. The laidback cadence and deadpan manner in which he delivers his lines is distinctly his — there’s something alluringly dreamy, even flighty about his disposition, as if he’s simultaneously tapped into multiple planes of existence. He’s also keenly observant and intelligent, somehow managing to sustain our interest for 90 minutes of what is essentially a whimsically incisive educational session for children on the emotional palette of colors without resorting to obvious parody (in the show, Torres teasingly tells the audience that the show is being developed to tour elementary schools). All in all, Color Theories is an auspicious Off-Broadway debut for Torres.

Despite being grounded in the performance traditions of standup comedy and the theatrical monologue, Color Theories is actually a bit of a mini-spectacle, featuring a fun house set design (courtesy of Tommaso Ortino) and some rather outlandish costumes (the creation of Muriel Parra). These bizarre yet elaborate design elements land the show squarely in the realm of absurdist avant-garde theater and performance art, complete with head-scratching yet often delightful “pop-up” props and set pieces, in addition to an adorable time-keeping robot (the top-notch puppetry is by Monkey Boys Productions) and some nifty video design work (by André Azevedo Sweet). But at the center of it all is Torres himself, a singular talent who’s got the goods and the following to be a real force in downtown theater.

RECOMMENDED

COLOR THEORIES
Off-Broadway, Play
Performance Space New York
1 hour, 30 minutes (without an intermission)
Through October 5