At Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in Toronto, on Thursday
For several years now, Danny Grossman has been holding a second company season at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. The choreographer uses this intimate venue to produce works that push the boundaries of conventional morality and social awareness. Given the subject matter of transvestite fantasies, Buddies is the perfect home for Grossman's new piece, This Is Heaven to Me.
The setting is a train-station washroom, and the elaborate set by Cheryl Lalonde conveys the ornamentation of past architectural glories. Bonnie Beecher's exquisite lighting adds lustre to the golden bronze mesh walls that separate the gleaming toilet cubicles, and the decorative filigree chains and draperies hanging from the ceiling. Into this golden hue come slow-motion, faceless figures carrying suitcases and wearing bronze masks, fedoras and raincoats. The one distinct person is the maintenance man in blue, portrayed with great feeling by the excellent Gérald Michaud.
The dance begins with a janitorial ballet as Michaud performs a duet with his wrench and mop. It then slips into a Busby Berkeley fantasy as a mystical lover (the adorable Eddie Kastrau), clothed in a vivid gold jock strap, arrives for an Arcadian pas de deux surrounded by a Greek chorus in bronzed body suits (Pamela Grundy, Andrea Nann, Paul DeAdder and Ray Hogg). With the arrival of the mythical character Ganymede, Michaud sheds his coveralls to reveal a long slinky dress and sexy silk stockings. Darren Copeland's clever electronic soundscape is replete with sounds of urination, toilet flushing and Billie Holiday's rendition of the vintage song of the title.
Grossman has always been an in-your-face choreographer who pushes up against the audience's comfort zone. This Is Heaven to Me lies in the limbo between high-camp parody and dance from the gut, swinging from embarrassed laughter to genuine sympathy for the closet transvestite. Grossman has included arch arabesque poses and other send-ups of ballet vocabulary for both his leads and the Greek chorus. In one memorable moment, a provocatively posed Michaud standing on the mop strings is dragged across the floor by Kastrau. Perhaps the fantasy sequence would have had more resonance if Grossman had included graphic sexual encounters between his travellers earlier in the piece. Because these strangers never physically interact, the tawdry element of nameless washroom sex is barely implied. Another choreographic tack would have been outright satire and genuine laughter to underscore heart-felt poignancy. While one can sympathize with Grossman's message, the work doesn't have the impact it should.
A delightful if unusual addition to the season at Buddies is the revival of the lost dance classic. Grossman's dancers recreate three hilarious and hard-hitting feminist works from the repertoire of the Clichettes. In the early eighties, the Clichettes (Louise Garfield, Janice Hladki and Johanna Householder) lip-synched to schlocky songs from the sixties, producing brilliant choreography that gave penetrating social commentary to banal lyrics. Kudos to Pamela Grundy for her very funny take on the suave continental lover, Renzo Cesana, and to Andrea Nann, Meredith Thompson and Ray Hogg (in drag) as the ditzy blondes.
Other works include remounts of Grossman's 1977 masterpiece solo Curious Schools of Theatrical Dancing: Part 1, performed with excruciating physicality by Kastrau, and 1989's Twisted, about love in an insane asylum with Kastrau and Nann as the delightful crazy couple, and DeAdder, Hogg and Michaud as their inept psychiatrists. Danny Grossman Dance Theatre continues until March 10.