Violin(ce)
Violin(ce) Created by John DiDonna and the Ensemble
Fight Coordination by Bill Warriner
Empty Spaces Theatre C (llaboration) / DiDonna Productions
Lowndes Shakespeare Center, Orlando FL</strong>
This is a very stabby show. Imagine a very heavily armed Modern Dance troupe taking the stage, personalizing the violent acts in their own lives, and then working out the their aggression by almost cutting each other into small pieces. Then they hang upside down from the rafters to relax and regroup. This in intensely physical performance keeps a dozen people sweating profusely and moving carefully, all while almost but not quiet skewering each other. Back stage projections give some context to what happing down stage, and an elegant woman plays a violin tying this the oddly punctuated title to the on stage action.
Things start in a comic vein with “A Little Slap of the Stick.” Here John DiDonna and Mila Makarova act out a comic scene silent film style; the climax involves half asleep DiDonna French kissing his mop. “Meanwhile, Back in the Old West” feature all the male players cheating at poker and then settling the pot by a careful analysis of the odds of any given poker hand and then beating the crap out of each other while the women look on and then throw them all out into the manure filled street. Another comic scene has Miles Berman and Corey Volance as two timid fencers; they do a god job of not threatening each other until someone dies, humorously.
Swordplay and rough and tumble dominated the night, and the dancing, while well executed never generated the excitement the fighting did. The most moving part of the show was the interlocked narratives of spousal abuse and family fights and schoolhouse bullying, these stories took the physical act of motion and tied it rational. Mr. Warriner fight choreography was stunning, from the climactic melee to the slightly silly James West “Beat ‘Em Up, One At a Time” scene. There was even a disjoint-feeling aerial number with dancers hanging upside down off white fabric tied to the ceiling, but at least they didn’t cross swords while hanging like bats. Fights scenes always perk up otherwise staid Shakespeare comedies, but a full hour of sword play grew tiring.
For more information on Empty Spaces Theater Company, visit http://www.emptyspacestheatre.org
