A woven lace scrim spliced the theater into two halves. Those halves were again spliced into two sections by large screens hung from the rafters, one screen in each half. This intentional segmentation created four groupings where audience members were hidden from one another. Oh...we were in a hot box too. It was evident from the get-go that Hot Box was slated to be an intimate experience we had to tackle alone.
I was excited. I had never been in a seating arrangement such as this, nor had I ever been seated so close to a screen in a professional space that I could essentially touch with my fingertips. I was curious to see Brian Rogers and Madeline Best up close, inquisitive as to how much full-body dancing could or would be done in such a fragmented space.
Circular light patterns flickered on and off from the screens, teasing us and building tension alongside low-frequency soundscapes. I felt as if I was entering the brain waves of the performers before they even emerged. This "tension building" went on for frankly way too long, and pretty soon I was bored. Eventually, Brian and Madeline broadcasted their faces as they stood in front of two cameras, one camera on each half of the space in a semi-exposed backstage area. Only one of these two "backstage areas" was visible from my seat. I found myself peeking to watch Best and Rogers pose for the perfect glimpse, however, it's my guess that the intention was for the audience to watch the screen. I felt as is I was watching a dramatic TV show on AMC. A show that wouldn't get renewed for season 2.
Each camera was programmed on a slider to waver back and forth at various speeds, whimsically catching the glances and interior developments of Rogers and Best. Cutting their faces off at awkward angles made it seem artsy and "thoughtful." The light structure in these backstage areas was seldom bright, thus instigating a moody environment on which the emotions were dependent. Rogers and Best's facial dispositions slightly wavered in expression, but mostly circled around despondency. And their bereaved faces and upper torsos were the only body parts projected onto the screens, for almost an hour.
Rogers' eyes would focus on the lens and oftentimes he looked like a child, sad and lost, silently begging for something. He seemed claustrophobic and apprehensive. Their stares of turmoil did not morph into limbs with a similar Trisha Brown-like intentional carelessness. Nor did their abstractness juxtapose their emotions with jarring, expansive choreography. With visual and technical elements spatially designed to impress, the performance lacked ingenuity and any sort of streamlined beginning, middle and end. Not that an opaque piece of work has to have any of those three stages, but Hot Box sort of just lingered in the same space for 55 minutes, morphing into itself over and over again.
Unfortunately, my previous self-reflecting moments of anticipation, curiosity and wonderment were the highlights of the performance. Not what I was witnessing but what was in my head. My enthusiasm languidly faded through observation, torturous in disappointment. Hot Box failed to do much of anything but stare back and you with exhausted eyes in a not-so-chaotic environment.
The only background info I read before attending the performance was that the performers, in preparation before every show, would get drunk. Not to plug my own experience here, but this is my blog so whatever. BacKspace Performance Ensemble has been doing that for over two years (our "residency" was at popular Brooklyn bar, Sugarland). And when BacKspace did that, we weren't actively investigating a process. However I'm 100% positive each performance BacKspace did while inebriated was affected. So when Rogers and Best exploit this tactic to the press, they should show something for it. Scream, agonize, reflect in your hot box distress. Move bigger because your mind is muddled. Do something different than you would sober.
Was I tortured in my own hot box? Yes indeed.
Read an interview with Gia Kourlas (Time Out NY), Rogers and Best here: http://bit.ly/QFnxnM
Hot Box runs through Sept 22; The Chocolate Factory, sold out
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