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Review of Grupo Krapp performance

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New York Times, Review of Grupo Krapp performance >>

Grupo Krapp: Simmering With Absurdity, Violence and Seduction

-by Gia Kourlas, August 4, 2006

Grupo Krapp isn’t the sort of company that comes around very often, especially not from Argentina, land of the tango. Named after Samuel Beckett's play “Krapp’s Last Tape,” this experimental group, consisting of actors, dancers and musicians, is an endearing, excellent collective. As part of its Latino Cultural Festival, Queens Theater in the Park played host to the troupe on Wednesday, and New York audiences finally witnessed what the fuss was about.

In “Project E,” an eerie new work, five performers, dressed in Gabriela A. Fernandez’s charmingly twisted wrestling uniforms, slumped on green chairs facing the audience. Portraying a group of performers trying to regain their theatrical prowess, they also faced the challenge of creating a dance.

Video by Alejo Moguillansky was shown on a portable screen and featured grainy scenes of sporting events and bucking broncos and of Pina Bausch, surrounded by wooden chairs and dressed in a white slip, in her work “Café Müller.”

One performer, Fernando Tur, appeared periodically wearing a white tank dress over his black spandex. Perhaps in homage to Ms. Bausch, he moved slowly and precisely, exposing his wrists in a melancholy walk.

Along with sad but riotous street performers, who stood on their knees while playing guitars, there was a cruel game with a wooden box; as soon as one dancer tried to sit on it, another pulled it away with glee. But the heart of the work was a duet for Luciana Acuña, who stripped to a pair of white briefs, and Luis Biasotto.

Lying on his stomach and gradually rising to all fours, Mr. Biasotto balanced Ms. Acuña’s upright figure on his back as she surfed through the air. Marcelo Alvarez’s enthralling lighting bathed the stage in a moonlit glow, recasting the former moments of lunacy and pratfall humor with a beautiful, almost chilling calm.

“Dry River,” from 2002, featured six performers, including the wonderful Mr. Biasotto, trapped in a terrible family vacation. Ariel Vaccaro’s set — which included a tent, a beach umbrella and a piano— and Ms. Fernandez’s mismatched sporty outfits (the men also wore fake mustaches) instantly created a singular world where undercurrents of violence and sexual tension simmered masterfully beneath rigorous, acrobatic vocabulary.

Choreography for both pieces was credited to Ms. Acuña, Mr. Biasotto and Agustina Sario. But it was also apparent that each meticulous work was created in collaboration with the other performers, all gifted physical comedians who don’t make their humor obvious by remarking on it. They cherish the kind of absurdity that is full of light and dark edges: it’s the human experience.

 08/04/06 >> go there
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