Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Searching solo shows that stare down life and death: Phillip Howze’s SELF PORTRAITS (DELUXE) and Dael Orlandersmith’s SPIRITUS / VIRGIL’S DANCE

• By drediman
• February 19, 2024
• No Comments

This past week, I was able to take in a pair of intimate, searching solo shows that stare down life and death. Read on for my thoughts.

SELF PORTRAITS (DELUXE)
Bushwick Starr at JACK
Through February 24

First up at JACK in Brooklyn is Bushwick Starr’s production of Self Portraits (Deluxe) (RECOMMENDED). Written and performed by Phillip Howze, the piece is a meditation on identity – particularly as refracted through the fractured lens of a Black Man. The result is a surreal, hallucinatory fantasia that’s both disorienting and disarming. In performance, Howze traverses the spectrum between affable and ferocious, shedding light on the complexity of the human psyche, particularly within the fluid context of a society that’s in constant flux itself. Eschewing traditional narrative in favor of a poetic progression through unpredictable moods and passing impressions, the work ultimately arrives at an imagined future that inspires hope. Howze’s use of language is particularly fascinating, eventually abandoning speech altogether as a means of communicating his state of mind. As staged by director Dominique Rider, Self Portraits (Deluxe) surrounds the audience, giving each audience member a unique vantage point from which to experience the piece. There are also moments of interactivity (no spoilers here) that further immerse audiences into Howze’s troubled imagination, making us active participants in the journey.

SPIRITUS / VIRGIL’S DANCE
Rattlestick Theater
Through March 9

Then over at the Rattlestick Theater in the West Village, you’ll find Spiritus / Virgil’s Dance (RECOMMENDED), the latest solo show from Dale Orlandersmith (a Pulitzer Prize finalist for Yellowman). Last seen at the Rattlestick in 2018 in Until the Flood – her one woman play exploring the death of black teenager Michael Brown at the hands of Darren Wilson, a white police officer – Orlandersmith’s latest turns the focus to more philosophical matters, more specifically the notion of mortality, that inescapable fate that awaits us all. In the play – which is loosely inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy – Orlandersmith embodies Virgil, a woman whose search for meaning is altered when death starts taking on an increasingly paramount role in her life. As Virgil grapples with her thoughts, she ultimately makes the case that death and the process of dying are as natural as living and should be embraced as such. As with her past chameleonic performances, Orlandersmith loses herself so thoroughly and Virgil’s life journey that it’s hard to tell where the actor ends and her character begins. Once again, Orlandersmith has collaborated with director Neel Keller, whose elegant staging meshes wonderfully with her graceful, clear-eyed storytelling.