Interludes

One of the most conventional entries in this year’s Under the Radar was Bronx native Flaco Navaja’s Evolution of a Sonero. This Puerto Rican coming-of-age musical-cum-salsa concert, directed by Jorge B. Merced, was a crowd favorite, particularly in the hands of the exceedingly charming Mr. Navaja and his smooth onstage band. Although I missed some of unexpected theatrical thrills of the festival’s other offerings, I found Evolution of a Sonero to be a breath of fresh air for being confidently and comfortably in its own skin without feeling the need to engage in sometimes distancing avant-garde shenanigans.

CHAMBRE NOIRE
Plexus Polaire

Some of the most indelible stage pictures of Under the Radar came from Plexus Polaire’s moody hallucination that is Chambre Noire, a meditation on the final moments of the life of Valerie Jean Solanas, the woman perhaps best known for having shot Andy Warhol. The piece, which hails from Europe and has been directed by the duo of Yngvild Aspeli and Paola Rizza, is notable for paying meticulously close attention to the intersection of the visual and sonic elements of its dreamscape (the puppetry was some of the most and haunting and exquisite I’ve seen in recent memory; the hypnotic score is by Guro Moe Skumsnes Moe). Although I left the short piece somewhat less than fully satisfied, I found it difficult to shake off the pungent mood Chambre Noire had conjured.

RECOMMENDED

MINEFIELD
Lola Arias

One of the highlights of the festival for me was Argentinian theater artist Lola Arias’s Minefield, at NYU Skirball. In short, it represents documentary theater at its most engaging. The piece, directed and written by Ms. Arias, is notable for its clear-eyed look back at the Falklands War via real life war veterans (now in their 60s) – all quite wonderful stage performers, I might add (and who collectively form a mean rock band) – from both the British and Argentinian sides. What Minefield makes evident, muscularly and matter-of-factly, is that time does heal almost all things. This realization, for me, turned this potentially dry theatrical experience into one of the most authentically hopeful shows I’ve seen in a long time.

AS FAR AS MY FINGERTIPS TAKE ME
Tania El Khoury

Perhaps the most out-of-the-box experience at this year’s Under the Radar was Tania El Khoury’s As Far as My Fingertips Take Me. The 15-minute experience – whereby an unseen Syrian refugee drew an evocative picture of the refugee experience on my forearm while I listened to a track (in Syrian) on headphones – was over before I could even begin to process it and soak the experience in. Conceptually, I applaud its audacity, but ultimately I found the emotional impact of it all somewhat stunted.

Not lacking at all in emotional clarity and maximization was the Kilbane’s Weightless, which was performed at BRIC House in Brooklyn. Directed by Becca Wolff with a sure hand in the rock concert vernacular, the musical (which is based on a Greek myth) tells the story of the inspiring and irrepressible bond between two runaway sisters. The main attraction here is the Kilbane’s inspired and undeniably stirring score. Indeed, numerous times during its brisk 75-minute running time, the outfit’s gorgeously-performed cycle of songs moved me to the core. I would really love to see this one evolve and even more fully come into its own, perhaps with just a tad more meat on its bones, in future iterations.