CHICAGO PERFORMS
Michael Zerang’s Hot Sands and Kaja Overstreet’s Moonlight are the two works making up this double bill, and they couldn’t be more oddly matched. Zerang’s piece uses broad, grotesque, cartoonish strokes to indict our country’s swaggering military posture in the Middle East. Overstreet’s work (actually highlights from a longer piece) presents a series of curious dreamlike fragments, charmingly simple and direct. Seeing these two pieces back-to-back–being put through one’s mental paces–made for a challenging, surprising, and ultimately satisfying evening.
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The subtlety and nuances of this section make it riveting, as much a credit to Zerang’s careful direction as to the skillful performances of the women (Lydia Charaf, Kathleen Maltese, Donna Mandel, and Jean Parisi). It is an unsettling section as well, not only because of the veiled threat the women seem to offer but because they are presented in a way that teeters on the brink of stereotype: they seem mysterious, exotic, malevolent Arabs. Nonetheless, no clear point of view on these women has yet emerged.
With the entrance of two American soldiers (Douglas Grew and Gino De Grazia), the piece begins to unravel and the ambiguity unfortunately begins to disappear. They are typical grunts, one white and one black, arguing about patriotism, duty, and freedom, all the while brandishing their weapons in case of attack. They truly are cartoons, playing the scene broadly, without the kind of personal investment that makes the other characters interesting.
This section is not only quite humorous, it has been thoroughly explored. Melcori and Overstreet’s dance during their mutual “seduction” seems choreographed to be as awkward as possible. Every gesture is significant–Melcori removes his socks and lays them out just so–yet everything appears entirely unrehearsed. And the presence of the nurse, watching with his devilishly sweet smile, provides not only an ironic distance from the scene but a perverse mirror for the audience as well.
