Theater Reviews: Jen and Angie, I'm Just Wild About Harry

Also, Money & Run, Boise U.S.A. and more

Comments (0) By L.A. Weekly Theater Critics Monday, Jun 2 2008

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Ed Krieger

Norman's Ark

Jen and Angie

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WET SPOTS: THE STORY PROJECT The flier for the show is provocative — a close-up shot of a woman’s crotch, moisture soaking through her hot-pink panties, dark pubic hair peeking out from the fuchsia lace. Text runs along her inner thigh: “Tiny dances about the female orgasm.” But this production of dance and spoken word by the Suarez Dance Theater shied away from the transgressive or shocking. Instead, it shared a series of tales that were as much about the inner journey to orgasm as the physical one. “Micro Theater,” as the company calls its work, was staged within three tiny cottages in a residential area of Venice. The audience was guided in groups of five or six to each performer’s space. The small rooms provided an instant intimacy, and the home environment lent itself to a sense of voyeurism. Dancers could be found in the kitchen, the shower, the closet, even soaking in a hot tub. One piece, about a girl having a spontaneous orgasm on the dance floor during a rave, took place entirely in bed. But the height of the voyeuristic experience was the dance by Bonnie Lanvin and Meg Woolfe, about sexual dysfunction within a relationship. They moved through the rooms of one cottage as though they lived there, their dance one of everyday life and annoyance. The audience had to follow the dancers on their unpredictable path, and the tight quarters would sometimes only allow peeking around a corner to catch a glimpse of their motion. As captivating as these small performances were, strung together they felt disjointed and random. There was no arc to the storytelling, no real payoff at the end. For a show about orgasms, it left the audience — frustratingly — without a climax. Venice Beach Eco Cottages, 447 Grand Blvd., Venice; closed. (Pandora Young)