Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Constanza Macras and DorkyPark’s dance theater hybrid OPEN FOR EVERYTHING is an unruly explosion of Romani community and life

• By drediman
• October 6, 2022
• No Comments

Last night at the Harvey Theater at BAM Strong, I attended the opening night of DorkyPark’s Open for Everything, the chaotic second offering of the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s 2022 Next Wave Festival. First seen more than a decade ago, the work is directed and choreographed by Constanza Macras and mounted alongside Berlin-based theater company DorkyPark, both of whom are making their BAM debuts this week.

In true experimental theater fashion, kitsch and excess meet in this infuriating but ultimately invigorating portrait of Eastern Europe’s country-less Roma people through a heady mix of dance (contemporary, folk), music (traditional, pop), and theater (avant-garde through and through). Throughout the evening, these different genres fluidly if somewhat incoherently are mashed together and anchored by first-person A Chorus Line-like vignettes that provide intimate specificity against the broader collective experience of the Roma people. Although the piece could easily shed about half an hour, the explosion of Romani life and community conjured by the show’s large company trumps length, especially when the whole thing is scored as fantastically as by the live onstage band, who bring Romani (and other) music traditions to vivid life.

There’s a radical sense of diversity up on the stage of the Harvey. Indeed, it’s as if the show’s creators are adamant to broadcast that age, race, performance skill level, body type, and gender should not define the spirit of a people. As such, there’s an overall raggedy quality to the (invariably visceral) performances that vacillate jarringly between painfully self-aware and achingly authentic.

SOMEWHAT RECOMMENDED

OPEN FOR EVERYTHING
Dance Theater
Brooklyn Academy of Music / Harvey Theater at BAM Strong
1 hour, 40 minutes (without an intermission)
Through October 8