WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO WITH MARY?
SHAWN COYLE & DANCERS
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What Are We Going to Do With Mary? is centered squarely on O’Slynne. He plays Preston Carlisle, the rich boy in the tiny Texas town of Forney. (O’Slynne grew up in Forney, Texas, and much of the dance is reportedly taken directly from his boyhood.) Life in Forney has convinced Carlisle that what matters is “who is sticking what into whom, and who is enjoying it.” Carlisle wants the most popular girl in high school, Mary (Mary Ward), who finally marries him for his money. But Mary is still attracted to the most popular boy in high school, Driver Goodbody (Brian Jeffery). This triangle leads to murder–in one of many plot twists, Mary persuades Carlisle to murder Goodbody, but Mary is killed instead.
The plot emerges from Carlisle’s stories. O’Slynne is the kind of raconteur who eases a listener in. He tells about how to impress a girl: polish the backs of your shoes all the way down to the heel, because with all the cow shit and chicken shit in Forney clean shoes are impressive. When he walks out of the room, Carlisle wants a girl to think, “That Preston Carlisle is sure neat.” At the same time O’Slynne is an abrasive stand-up comic who heckles his audience, telling them when to clap and when not to laugh. O’Slynne switches between the mad Preston Carlisle, the raconteur Carlisle, and the stand-up comic with a charm that, he reminds the audience, is part of southern politeness.
The second act ends oddly, too. Carlisle shoots a character called the Crazy Man, then Carlisle, Goodbody, and the Crazy Man all fall to the floor. It suggests that all three characters are parts of Carlisle’s splintered personality, and that the action of the whole evening has been the result of Carlisle’s dementia. Such a deus ex machina ending is unworthy of the rest of the work.
Enthusiastic dancing is also a hallmark of Tunnel, in which seven dancers (Erica Bebiak, Cardoza, Fano, Kim Kohler, Dan Lantvit, Jenny Myers, and Nathan Lowe) in white unitards cavort in a Muppet-like wonderland created by Bert Leveille. A twisted papier-mache ladder rises like smoke from center stage; cute papier-mache monsters hang from its rungs. In front of the ladder is a six-foot-tall tunnel, like a huge Slinky covered with filmy cloth. Phantasmagorical landscapes in neon colors form the backdrop. Unfortunately the dancing does not inhabit this world but meanders through a long series of improvisations that always seem to end with the dancers sprawled on the floor.
