Of all the things to be tempted with this holiday season, nothing is so tantalizing as Company XIV’s production of Snow White which lures audiences to 303 Bond Street with all the seduction of an evil queen extending a shiny, beautiful, apple in order to cast a magical spell.  One thing is certain – there is definitely something bewitching the spectators who walk in innocently and emerge 90 minutes later – filled to overflowing with images of exquisiteness and spectacle.  If that’s not magic, I don’t know what is.

The lights are hung, // The wires strung, // The sets are all painted and built
The make-up’s applied // And I’ll say it outright: // The gold you will see is just gilt.
The kingdom and forest is plastic and steel // But the dancing feet are real.

And so begins the narrator’s speech as Jeff Takacs (who, as with all of the Company XIV productions, is responsible for the adaptation of the work, and has written the script) welcomes the audience to Snow White, conceived, choreographed and directed by Austin McCormick. It’s the perfect way to begin a fairytale: with the truth — that all the dazzling bells and whistles which make this show shine are remarkable, but take it all away and you’d still have the amazing dancers, executing the superb steps created by McCormick.  However, between the whirling and the witchery is where the wonder lives.

I have long since left all expectations at the door when it comes to Company XIV and Austin McCormick; the only thing I can be sure of is that the show will be dazzling, delightful and richly textured in a perfect blend of media and styles.  And so it is with Snow White – which immediately beguiles the audience with a Gothic-inspired funeral scene sung beautifully by Lauren Michelle.  What follows is not just dancing but aerial silk, aerial hoop, acrobatics, and mixed media.

What I’ve come to love about McCormick (as a director) is that if a work of his is labeled “family friendly” it does not mean he has diluted his vision for the young ones; if anything, he challenges the wide-eyed tots in a way that invites them to appreciate a world of pure imagination – a world that hides nothing and therefore allows for everything.  Rather than stripping away elements so that children can grasp the story more fully, McCormick actually layers in more complexity so that a younger sensibility is served alongside that of the adults. I envy the children who are growing up with Company XIV as an example of what theatre can be; they are being given memories that will spark them to create amazing things on their own, rather than walk in the footsteps of what they see being churned out by Hollywood in order to sell more happy meals.

This Snow White hasn’t been altered much from the original Brothers Grimm fairy tale – there’s the death of the queen, mourned throughout the land, who leaves behind her sweet little girl with skin as white as snow, hair as black as ebony, and lips as red as roses.  There’s the evil stepmother who is so vain that she can’t go a day without demanding that her magic mirror confirm that she’s the fairest in the land.  There’s the inevitable moment when Snow White (Gracie White) grows into her beauty and outshines the Evil Queen (Laura Careless) prompting the queen to hatch all sorts of plots which include death by hunter (hunter fails), death by suffocating corset (untied by a raven), death by poisoned hair comb (pulled out by a fox) and finally the worst of all – the poisoned apple which sends Snow White into a deep sleep.  Later she is awakened by the charmingest of Princes with a kiss, the two marry and the Evil Queen gets her comeuppance.

Gracie White as Snow White, Ashley Handel and Laura Careless as The Evil Queen

What McCormick has done is changed the focus of the piece; while the title may be “Snow White” the best moments are given to McCormick’s muse and principal dancer, the fantastic Laura Careless, who clearly sinks her teeth into the role of the Evil Queen as deeply as Snow White sinks her teeth into the poisoned apple.  Careless’ full range of talents are on display in this production, not only does she dance through each scene with an awe-inspiring  fervor but she clearly displays a wonderful gift of accents and even humor.  Having watched Ms. Careless over the last few productions I was delighted to see this side emerge – while she never fails to amaze it was wonderful to see her in a role that had so many opportunities to showcase the campier side of her (seemingly limitless) talents.

Of course, leave it to McCormick to have the audience thrilling to the darker side of such an innocent tale.

Gracie White as Snow White (photo by Steven Schreiber)

For her part Gracie White as Snow White is lovely; she has all the charm of an innocent young maiden who seems to never learn that an evil queen is out to get her.  The aerial work she does on the hoop is delicate and elegant and she often seems to defy gravity as she is hoisted and held and dropped before being caught at just the precise moment, all while smiling peacefully.

Of course, there is no one element of the piece that could exist without the other; McCormick has hit on a formula that works and employs a team that does extraordinary things with lighting effects (Gina Scherr), video projections (Corey Tatarczuk) and repeating musical themes.  So talented are they that set designer Zane Pihlstrom even make it snow — beautiful glittering bursts of sparkling snow that flutter and disappear … just like this production soon will.  So get your tickets now and give yourself the best holiday present of all.

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Related Posts:

• She’s Mad But She’s Magic: LOVER. MUSE. MOCKINGBIRD. WHORE
• The Halloween Plays – Three Bursts Of Fire, Fear And Fantasy
• Not Your Father’s Circus: Le Cirque Feerique (The Fairy Circus)
• Let’s Keep Dancing … At The Company XIV Workshop
• Nutcracker Rouge – The Way The Nutcracker Should Be

I’m glad when they arrive and I’m glad when they leave. I’m glad when I hear their heels approaching my door and I’m glad when those heels walk away. I’m glad to fuck. I’m glad to care. And I’m glad when it’s over. And since it’s always either starting or finishing I’m glad most of the time.

– Charles Bukowski

It’s obvious that Austin McCormick’s grasp of creating a theatre experience reaches far beyond what merely happens on stage. The more I attend performances in the Company XIV space at 303 Bond Street in Brooklyn the more I am treated to McCormick’s all-encompassing way of choreographing not only movement but sensation. From the way the space transforms each time into a whole new configuration to the heady red wine that greets you (or bubbly sparking water for those who don’t partake) to the strange set that seems almost unfinished in spots, you know it’s all carefully constructed – nothing haphazard or random ever occurs here – and once the lights go out and the projections appear it all makes sense.  More than sense – it all makes magic.

Laura Careless as the embodiment of Bukowski’s women (photo by Corey Tatarczuk)

Settling down in your seat, drink in hand, you’ll notice there’s a room constructed to the side which you passed on your way in.  It’s an almost 1940s type film noir room – glass panes cloaked in clunky venetian blinds – the old ones that hardly appear in homes anymore, but make such a striking frame for a room forged in the aftermath of too much booze, countless failed love affairs, and an avalanche of evocative poetry.  This room designed by Zane Pihlstrom and offset by Gina Scherr’s hypnotic, dramatic lighting, will later become an area where we can voyeuristically watch the man and his women – be it through the slightly open blinds or aided by several cameras.  Keep looking around and it’s as if the air seems to bear the perfume of resignation as the music curls around you.  “Take a walk on the wild side …” it urges.  Shed your conventions and see what happens on the other side of that wall.

Laura Careless and Jeff Takacs as Charles Bukowski (photo by Corey Tatarczuk)

LOVER. MUSE. MOCKINGBIRD. WHORE begins with the voice of Bukowski himself – strangely familiar … if you’ve heard it even just once you’ll know it immediately.  Soon enough the reigns are taken up by Jeff Takacs who channels Charles Bukowski so thoroughly, so eerily that when he begins to speak the transition is virtually seamless; he is a perfect reflection of an imperfect man.

These women are supposed to come and see me but they never do. There’s the one with the long scar on her belly. There’s the other one who writes poems and phones at 3 a.m. saying, “I love you” …

… begins the litany of woman, all of whom are -or will be- embodied by the exceptionally gifted Laura Careless who not only spends the evening donning different dresses, garters, bras, wigs, shoes and stockings but also different identities all embodied with different natures, vulnerabilities, personalities and dispositions.  Yet ultimately this endless string of women spells the same thing for the man who simultaneously held them in awe as well as in contempt  - Trouble.

All I’ve ever known are pill freaks, alcoholics, whores, ex-prostitutes, madwomen. When one leaves another arrives worse than her predecessor. “Don’t ever bring a whore around,” I tell my few friends, “I’ll fall in love with her.”

To fully embrace what McCormick has created you must first understand the poet Bukowski or, short of that, you should at least understand the poetry of Bukowski.  Which is a rather tall order if you’ve never encountered him before, but well worth it if you have. (If you’re of the “never before” school here’s a great place to start your education).

Laura Careless and Jeff Takacs as Charles Bukowski (photo by Corey Tatarczuk)

An appreciation for Bukowski’s poetry brings with it the realization that joy comes in many forms, sometimes enjoyment comes in the recognition of pure despair.  And no one gave a snapshot into skid row despair the way Bukowski did – his works open up a parallel universe, where – if we dare step into it – we can try on another life which can be treated brutally, carelessly, one that we fold and crease and crumple; one  that takes us out of stability and comfort and into the bottom of a bottle which has been tossed amid the rumpled, stained sheets and forgotten.

Where the disparity (and the genius) between Bukowski’s words and McCormick’s vision occur is that The Poet adored women plural but destroyed woman singular and in an effort to celebrate them in his art he impaled them with each line of text. McCormick, on the other hand, understands that the boundary between magnificence and malignancy is flexible.  It can often be played with, twisted and turned inside out.  So even as Laura Careless is moving – writhing at times, jerking, she herself twisting and turning inside out – her natural agility and grace as she executes McCormick’s intricate gestures bring life to Bukowski’s words in a way that is haunting and unforgettable.  Perhaps in a way that no other medium could capture with as much passion, pathos and power.

Charles Bukowski gained acclaim by proving that poetry didn’t have to be lovely in order to be heartfelt.  By choreographing, staging and directing a dance/theatre meditation around this poetry, McCormick proves that dance doesn’t have to be lovely in order to be heartfelt either.  LOVER. MUSE. MOCKINGBIRD. WHORE is more – heart felt, heart breaking, ground breaking … and one more outstanding achievement from Company XIV.

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Related Posts:

• The Fairest Of Them All: Company XIV – Snow White
• The Halloween Plays – Three Bursts Of Fire, Fear And Fantasy
• Not Your Father’s Circus: Le Cirque Feerique (The Fairy Circus)
• Nutcracker Rouge – The Way The Nutcracker Should Be
• Let’s Keep Dancing … At The Company XIV Workshop

“How delightful are the pleasures of the imagination! In those delectable moments, the whole world is ours; not a single creature resists us, we devastate the world, the means to every crime is ours, and we employ them all, we multiply the horror a hundredfold.”

– Marquis de Sade

The Company XIV ensemble Dénouement—A Murderous Masquerade (Photographer: Corey Tatarczuk)

Company XIV has joined up with Brave New World Repertory Theatre to create a show that, in three acts, covers all the grown-up Halloween thoughts that haunt the recesses of the minds of those too old to go door to door asking for candy on the appointed day.

To step into the space of Company XIV is to surrender yourself to the world that Austin McCormick and his cohorts create.  First act – Dénouement —A Murderous Masquerade – is at once devilish, devious, and delirious – it will beguile you, possess you, and then  -once it’s had its way with you-  will leave you emotionally drained, begging for more.

Taking a cue from the Marquis de Sade, the troupe of dancers play a dangerous game of Russian-roulette, one where in the end  just a single person remains standing.  The passion, betrayal, revenge, jealousy, fear, anticipation and excitement are all played out in a breathless whirlwind of dancing that mixes hatred and love as easily as gin mixes with vermouth to make that perfect martini.

Yet again, when Austin McCormick lets his imagination run wild, it runs straight into a world of intoxication, romance and magic.  Dénouement, however, is crisply tinged with exquisite torture as well – the anxious irrationality of the indulgence that seems doomed to fail before it starts.  To watch a woman dance a twisted dance of mourning that is so raw and powerful as to virtually evoke wailing – or to see a woman who would rather kill her lover than become a spectator to his display of wicked philandering – this is to see the true ghosts that haunt the human soul.  Bathed in the ethereal lighting design of Gina Scherr, the effect becomes so heady that you’d need more senses to fully embrace it all.  As it stands, the five you’ve got will be dazzled and overwhelmed.

With narration delivered by an alluringly well-heeled Jeff Takacs (this is a man who knows how to rock thigh-high patent leather spike boots), you will be bewitched by those who “love much . . . but not for long”.

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Chris Caputo (Young Hansel), Scott Voloshin (Witch), and Abigail Drach (Gretel) in Too Much Candy (Photographer: Steve Bartel)

The second of the Halloween Plays begins with candy – Too Much Candy - but soon becomes more about cognitive behavioral therapy.  Seems Hanzel (Stuart Zagnit) had a lousy childhood – he grew up poor and his mommy never hugged him.  Every time he finds himself overcome with memories of the past – something about a witch (Scott Voloshin), something about being abandoned in the woods with his sister Gretel (Abigail Drach) he consumes massive amounts of candy and pours his heart out to a psychiatrist (Claire Beckman) who seems to take more than a passing interest in his life history.

Writer Cynthia Babak has taken an age old tale and given it not just a new twist, but a pat New York twist – children’s story through the lens of shrink’s couch is a Gotham Tale if ever there was one.  Directed cleverly and whimsically by Nell Balaban, Too Much Candy flows well from past horror to present healing – using flashbacks to full effect.  With Chris Caputo echoing as Hansel’s younger self, we’re reminded of how terrifying this bedtime story really is.   Once you revisit it from this side, it’s no wonder this guy’s eating his emotions.

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Kevin Hogan, Alvin Hippolyte, and Sean Patterson in Salsa (Photographer: Steve Bartel)

The final play is a rapid fire, funny short about Salsa.  But not just any salsa – no . . . when we come upon this strange little diner on the edge of town, the patrons  are – as so many of us – in search of that perfect heat . . . that heat that will sear you and deliver all that is promised on that bottle.  One thing leads to another and suddenly a little blue bottle appears.  Hotter than the red stuff.  Hotter than the green stuff.  Hot enough to raise demons from the depths.

Although this is the shortest of the pieces, Salsa – written by Greg Kotis and directed by Chip Brookes – carries just as much weight as the other two.  With delicously spicy humor and a tasty payoff, Salsa is just the right condiment to top off this trio of shows.

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Related Posts:

• Nutcracker Rouge – The Way The Nutcracker Should Be
• The Fairest Of Them All: Company XIV – Snow White
• She’s Mad But She’s Magic: LOVER. MUSE. MOCKINGBIRD. WHORE
• Not Your Father’s Circus: Le Cirque Feerique (The Fairy Circus)
• Let’s Keep Dancing … At The Company XIV Workshop