THE HANGOVER REPORT – Compagnia Finzi Pasca’s whimsical LA VERITÁ invokes Dalí at BAM

unnamed-21The contemporary cirus troupe Compagnia Finzi Pasca is currently in the midst of a brief residency at the Brooklyn Academic of Music with its latest show La Veritá, a charming, somewhat uneven homage to the surrealist master Salvador Dalí. The multi-disciplinary troupe strikes me as an ideal interpreter of the Dalí aesthetic. Indeed, the company possess a mastery of various performance styles and genres in its toolbox – circus arts, theatre, dance, opera, vaudeville, puppetry, etc. – from which it can construct Dalí’s vivid, detailed dreamscapes.

It took me a while to warm up to the show’s haphazard style (which is written and directed by Daniele Finzi Pasca), but I eventually embraced the unpredictable, seemingly schizophrenic sensibility as a valid theatrical manifestation of Dalí and his work. I just wish they had carried this whimsical and nonsensical theatricality one step further into the realm of chaos. Too much of the program adheres to the organized Cirque du Soleil-esque act-by-act formula. I did however appreciate how various “characters” would intrude the stage during these acts, creating multiple universes onstage simultaneously. For me, this exciting layering reached its zenith in the inspired pandemonium that closes the first act, during which the circus acts merge with the cacophony as opposed to resisting it. Although nothing in the second half reaches the same giddy heights as this act-closing spectacle (the biographical information on Dalí should be limited or cut altogether), I found myself increasingly appreciate the troupe’s infectious Pina Bausch-like chemistry and individual performer’s delightful idiosyncrasies.

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LA VERITÁ
Circus Arts/Dance/Theater
Compagnia Finzi Pasca at BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
2 hours, 15 minutes (with one intermission)
Through May 7

Categories: Dance, Off-Broadway, Theater

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