The production of Charles Mee’s “Vienna: Lusthaus” that went up Nov. 17 to 19 in the ’92 Theater was like an Expressionist painting: beautiful, lush, vibrant, and haunting. Director Meredith Steinberg ’06 worked artistic magic, turning an eight-page monologue into an eleven-person dance-theater piece. Marina Kastan ’08, Jess Lane ’06 and Sarah Lonning ’06’s spare costumes, and Klimt-inspired wall hangings designed by Kate Bryant ’06 and Ashley May ’07 efficiently evoked early twentieth-century Vienna. This established a concrete historical moment for the actors, easing the difficulties of a fragmented “script” that drew on themes as broad as memory and Freudian dream imagery.
The choreography, developed by Steinberg in close collaboration with the performers, was visually impressive. Cast and crew used movement to suggest love, alienation, sex, desire, friendship, and everything in between. The execution itself was similarly skillful: dancers rose to the demands of moves that required total comfort with both their own bodies and the bodies of their partners. While it seems this should be true for any dance piece, “Lusthaus” choreography was especially physically demanding. Steinberg frequently placed dancers literally on top of each other, rolling, piling and touching bodies. Of the most frequently featured dancers, Danya Sherman ’06 in particular was notable for her physical ease and fluidity onstage.
The entire performance had a meditative quality, and its perpetual motion seamlessly blurred “scenic” distinctions. Nevertheless a few moments stood out from a theatrical point of view. At the start of the piece the entire cast assembled in a row across the stage holding empty wine glasses. Actors at the farthest ends of the line held filled carafes from which they initiated a wine-pouring assembly line. Those in the middle hmmed and ahhh-ed while emptying their cups, looking bemused as they were instantly refilled. In another short sequence, two women (Jillian Weinberger ’07 and Joanna Firestone ’09) went through the motions of small talk, slyly making faces at the audience that revealed what each really thought of her “friend.” Though they started off as only mildly bored, the women eventually hit a breaking point and began to claw at one other like animals. At a later point the waltz-heavy soundtrack was abruptly stopped and dancers broke it down to German rap. “Lusthaus” was punctuated with crowd-pleasing moments like these, which were not only lighthearted but carefully crafted.
Perhaps the most striking moment came at the end. As partnered dancers moved over and under each other on the floor, one girl (Devon Golaszewski ’08) tried to jump into the arms of the boy she likes. The boy, facing away from the audience, stood rigid as the girl repeatedly projected her body against his. Though this consistently failed to get his attention the girl moved back and tried again, continuing to throw herself at him long after she should probably have given up. While this final “scene” was particularly poignant, “Lusthaus” was filled with similarly beautiful, melancholy sequences.
“Vienna: Lusthaus” was an impressive showcase of Wesleyan’s double threats. It was exciting to see what developed when dancers who had never acted before shared a stage with actors who had never danced before. Ultimately, the result of a three-month rehearsal process was a fully balanced dance-theater piece and a quite different take on the abstract Charles Mee. For whatever reason, large-cast mixed performances like these are rarely attempted at Wesleyan. This production was a reminder that they should be.
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